Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic
by hishikawa
Summary: ーHiyori, Yuushi's old neighbor from Naniwa is clueless towards the Oshitari cousins' growing affections for her; and in Kenya's case, only grew with distance after she moved to Tokyo. 》？x OC
1. Prologue ー 1 of 2

**Prologue**

l

 **1 of 2**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

 _'Thoughts' -_ italics

* * *

On the streets of Naniwa, two elementary school boys were running home side by side together. At first glance one could mistake them for brothers. Both had dark hair and similar faces, but there was one who had sharper eyes and hair that messily fanned out from behind his ears. That boy was running ahead of the other with a silly grin on his face yelling.

Despite being spring, it was definitely a hot day. The air that blew onto the skin of Kenya's arms as he ran felt refreshing.

"Yuushi, come on! Your mom said she'll make takoyaki when we get back to the house!"

"You want takoyaki already?" Yuushi mumbled incredulously,"It's so hot outside."

The boy who was straggling behind called out to his cousin who was recklessly bumping into the other children walking home together.

"Kenya, you're going to trip!"

And it was true. His cousin had a penchant for tripping when he gets carried away and runs too fast.

Despite his warnings, Kenya sped on past the people heading home from school and work. He turned a corner to Yuushi's residential area and ran hastily towards his house. There was a sight that made the speedster slow down and stop right at the entrance of Yuushi's home. Kazumi, Yuushi's mother was outside one of the houses next door and conversing with another man. Curiously, Kenya went next door and crouched behind the gate leading the other house.

"Ah right." Kenya heard the man speaking to Yuushi's mother,"This is my daughter, Hiyori."

"Hiyori?" Kazumi repeated in awe,"Uwah, she's a tall girl. How old is she?"

"Ten."

"I see, the same age as my son Yuushi."

"The same age as me?"

"Yuushi?!" Surprised by the sudden whisper behind him, he stood up and yelped. He turned around and pointed a finger down at his cousin who was crouched on the ground behind him,"When did you get here?!"

"Just now." Yuushi hissed at him,"You also left me behind, idiot."

"Ara, Kenya-kun?" Kazumi was now looking at him from over the fence that was a little over half his height and smiled, "When did you arrive?"

Being the center of attention now, Kenya scratched his head nervously,"Just now, auntie."

"Where is Yuushi? I have someone to introduce to you two."

His cousin rose from behind the fence and nodded his head at his mother.

"I'm here."

The two boys entered through the gate and Kazumi turned back to the man and resumed her conversation with him. The house was just as big as Yuushi's. Two stories with a huge traditional yard.

"This is my son, Yuushi." Kazumi placed a hand on her son's shoulder and placed the other on Kenya's,"And my nephew, Kenya. Kenya, Yuushi, this is Jun Katagiri."

Yuushi looked up at the man in front of his mother and studied him. He had many gray hairs on his head signifying age. His expression didn't change much either. Yuushi could only guess that he was a very serious man.

"He works at the hospital beside your father." Kazumi smiled down at his son,"His daughter Hiyori is also the same age as you. She'll be attending Doutonbori Daini too."

Kenya and Yuushi didn't notice, but there was a girl partly concealing herself behind the older man's body. She had black hair cropped very short to frame her face. The length only reached just above her shoulders. The top of her head was covered by a baseball cap and she wore a simple t-shirt and shorts. Her eyes could barely be seen through the long bangs that covered her face and appeared very dark.

' _She dresses like a boy_ ' was Yuushi's only thought. Looking at Kenya, he assumed his wide eyed expression meant he shared the same thoughts.

"Hiyori." Jun urged his daughter,"Say hello."

In that moment, Hiyori immediately turned rail and ran back into the house towards the stairway. She was quick to leave their presence and her speed kicked up a wind that made Yuushi's and Kenya's hairs fly back. Everyone was speechless.

"Whoa…" Kenya managed to say.

Amongst the silence, Kazumi laughed.

"Please forgive my daughter." Jun apologized curtly to the three of them and watched his daughter run up the stairs of the house,"She's a shy one."

"Well then, that's all right. I'm sure once she starts school that will change." Kazumi squeezed Yuushi's shoulder and smiled down at him,"We will be going as well. I promised these boys takoyaki tonight. It was nice meeting you, Katagiri-san."

"Likewise."

She bowed at Jun and headed back to the house to prepare for dinner. The two boys followed behind her and Yuushi closed the gate behind them politely.

"That house was empty for a long time right?" Kenya looked back next door, "That girl seemed kind of weird too."

"Kenya, don't say things like that." Yuushi poked his head out in front of him as he walked alongside his mother to look at Kenya.

"She's also looks like a boy."

"You think so?" His aunt nodded her head,"Perhaps tomboy is more appropriate, Kenya-kun."

As soon as Kazumi stepped back into the house she noticed a familiar pair of shoes inside.

"Eiji?" She called out to her husband,"Are you here?"

A tall man emerged from the living room undoing his tie.

"Ah, Kazumi. I'm home."

"Welcome home." She removed her shoes and went over to Eiji. She moved his hands away and undid the tie for him,"I'll help you with that."

As she removed the tie, Yuushi greeted his father as he headed upstairs to his room,"I'm going to set up Kenya's futon for tonight."

Kenya followed behind his cousin and waved.

"Hiya, uncle!" He shot Yuushi's dad a toothy grin before speeding up the stairway after Yuushi.

"Oh, Kenya-kun!" Eiji was surprised to see his nephew inside the house,"You better slow down or you'll fall down the stairs!"

"Kenya-kun is also staying the night. It's Sunday tomorrow after all. They can go to school together on Monday." Kazumi informed Eiji,"I'll get started on dinner."

Kazumi hung her husband's tie by the door and went back to the kitchen to prepare tonight's meal. The husband and wife began talking about work and Jun's move next door.

"So you met Katagiri?"

The smell of the broiling salmon and cooking takoyaki came together and filled the whole house. Jun had left work early in the morning to finish the move and to have his daughter situated at the new house.

"His daughter... Hiyori." Kazumi added,"She was a very cute girl. She seemed really shy though. Hiyori will be in the same grade as Yuushi and Kenya-kun, so I hope they will be able to get along."

Kazumi opened the refrigerator and took out a can of beer for Eiji who was lounging on the living room sofa. Gratefully, he took it from his wife and opened it before taking a sip.

"Katagiri's daughter should get along fine with those two." Eiji told his wife,"Kenya is always joking around and smiling. Yuushi has his skills in tennis."

"Yuushi's tennis skill? What about it?" Kazumi was brushing the salmon with more marinade as she listened to her husband.

"Hiyori is also an aspiring tennis player. She's very good for her age. I'm sure she and Yuushi will get along because of that very reason."

"You think so?" Nodding her head, Kazumi removed the salmon from the broiling pan and asked herself,"Tennis, huh?"

* * *

Sunday morning, Kenya was standing over Yuushi's bed and poking his back over and over annoyingly.

"Yuushi, let's go running. Hey, Yuushi!"

The older of the two cousins was turned away from the other and his hair shifted over one of his eyes. Feeling tickled, Yuushi woke up and sluggishly slapped away Kenya.

"It's too early in the morning. What are you planning on doing?"

"Running!"

Yuushi's eyes adjusted to the light that was suddenly shining through the window and noticed Kenya was already in a t-shirt and a pair of running shorts. His running shoes were even laid out beside the door. The spontaneous nature of his cousin was both tiring and unbelievable.

Sighing, Yuushi swung his feet over the side of the bed and ruffled his hair.

"You've really woken me up now." He complained,"You can go run, I'm going to practice my tennis."

"Yuushi!" The boy was groaning now.

"Kenya, I'll run a few laps around the court with you if you promise me you'll play tennis with me afterwards."

The boy was easy to please, but he complained a lot.

"All right!"

Then Kenya was out of the room. Yuushi still didn't get his obsession with speed.

"Oi, Kenya! What about food! We have to eat first-"

A sports bar was thrown towards Yuushi's face, which he caught on time. Then a second one and a third.

"Where are you throwing?! You could've hit me!" He just about yelled inside the house. His mother was most likely doing errands and his father wouldn't be home until tonight as always.

"Then you weren't fast enough to catch it!" Kenya threw another bar at him and ran out of the house with one hanging out of his mouth.

"You'll choke!"

"It's all right! Naniwa's speed star already finished it!" He saluted Yuushi with another one of his stupid grins,"Onwards!"

Alas, Yuushi was left behind again and forced to catch up to Naniwa's self proclaimed speed star with his tennis bag on his back. He stared down at the wrapped bars in his hands and sighed. Grabbing a spare rubber band from the kitchen, he tied them together and slipped it into the part of the bag holding his racket.

"More like Naniwa's bird brain." He sighed inwardly and ran after that idiot.

Kenya was out of sight, but he would be waiting at the tennis courts already doing his laps. He had a hard time staying still anyway. Being kids, it was important to stay close together, but their area was bustling with people on Sundays and relatively a safe place. The court in a well off neighborhood anyway. The Oshitaris in Naniwa come from a long line of doctors as early as the Bakumatsu era. They were rich enough to live in their current neighborhood.

It wasn't that far until he spotted Kenya at the court . The only surprise was that he approached the fenced area and was watching something in awe, which happens never. Yuushi came to a jog and walked up beside Kenya.

"Kenya, what are you-"

It became clear then.

There was someone on one of the courts practicing their serves by themselves. The two of them watched as her long hair flowed behind her every time she swung her arm down to hit the tennis ball with her racket. Each time, she would pick up another tennis ball from a small metal cage-

Hitting it again, and again like a trance.

The ball would land at the other end of the court flawlessly, but what was even more amazing was how it landed exactly onto the line wherever she hit.

"Wow." Kenya managed to sputter.

"She's way out of your league though, Kenya." Yuushi grinned and walked towards the gate of the court,"You can't even hit the ball with that much accuracy."

Smugly, he turned his head back to his cousin and pointed his thumb towards the girl again.

"I-I can too!" Kenya hesitated with his words,"By the way it's not like I'm into her or anything! She's just really quick on her feet!"

And Kenya loves anything fast.

Both him and Yuushi knew the truth. Kenya didn't practice tennis unless it was Yuushi who invited him to play with him, but in the end he would almost always end up as his ball boy. His speed could easily catch up Yuushi's returning hits, but often times he would hit the ball out or into another court. He was a better ball boy than a practice partner.

"I'm pretty quick with my feet, Yuushi. After all..." Kenya stepped forward and pointed a finger at Yuushi challengingly,"I'm Naniwa's-"

"Biggest Idiot."

"Eh?"

Yuushi walked into the court with his hands in his pockets. He stopped in front of Kenya from the other side of the fence and clarified for him one more time.

"Naniwa's Biggest Idiot."

"Hah?!" Kenya breathed out loud enough to grab the attention of the girl who was preparing another serve. The hand holding the tennis ball dropped back down to her side and she turned to the two cousins.

Her eyes were hard to see with those bangs of hers. It covered her forehead and parts of her eyes. It was a wonder how she see where she hit. She was tall for a girl. She had to be at least half a head shorter than the two boys.

' _She has some long legs..._ ' Yuushi noted,' _An advantage when covering distance._ '

They were covered by a pair of grey sweat pants. Her t-shirt was tucked in and in her left hand she held her racket tightly.

' _Mizuno brand. And left handed._ ' The boy nodded his head to himself. As a right handed player, Yuushi was curious as to how one performs left handed in tennis. It was a rare sight to him.

"You." The girl pointed her racket at Yuushi,"How long have you been there?"

' _Seems aggressive as well._ '

"Yuushi..." Kenya's hands grasped the fence and Yuushi heard it shake to his cousin's weight,"Yuushi! She's talking to you!"

"Long enough." Yuushi responded to her question,"You're pretty good at serving."

"I was just trying to see if I can get the ball to land wherever I want it." She shrugged off the compliment,"My serving needs work."

"They say lefties are pretty good at serving." Yuushi went on,"Would you like to play a one point match with me?"

The girl tilted her head down and stared down at the tennis ball in her hand. Squeezing it tightly, she nodded her head.

"Sure."

She threw the ball back into the cage and asked,"Can you wait a bit? I'll clear the other side of the court."

There were indeed numerous amounts of balls piled up at the other side of the court. Many even rolled over to the neighboring courts. It was surely a task that would take a little more time for one person.

' _Can't let the girl do all the work either._ '

Yuushi put his bag down at the side of the fence where Kenya seated himself.

"Aren't you going to go running?" He blinked down at him,"I thought you didn't like staying in place."

"It's fine because I'm doing something."

"Like what?"

"Watching you."

"That's creepy, Kenya."

"You know what I mean!" He punched Yuushi's arm lightly,"Now go out there and- wow."

"Wow, what?"

Yuushi followed Kenya's amazed line of sight and saw the courts completely cleared of the girl's tennis balls. She walked back towards Yuushi and Kenya with the cage of tennis balls in hand.

"I collected them all. Shall we start?" The girl threw the last tennis ball in her hand back into the cage,"Do you also mind if I leave my things with yours?"

"A-Ah... yeah, no problem. Just set them there with him." Yuushi pointed to Kenya.

"That was incredible. I turned my head away for one second and when I looked back you're all done!" Kenya complimented in complete awe,"It was so fast."

The wind picked up from the east; moving the bangs that covered her face to the other side of her head. The two cousins witnessed the biggest smile forming on her lips.

"Thank you."

Her eyes were the color of coffee and cream, a light brown that contrasted with her dark hair. They were practically shining under the light of the sun. When the wind died down, her bangs remained in the same position; keeping her face clear of the strands of hair that once covered her face.

"Who are you?" Yuushi managed to ask her first.

She extended a hand out to him.

"Hiyori Katagiri."

* * *

"Hey, Katagiri-san." Yuushi pointed his racket towards her in triumph,"That was a great game."

Hiyori stood at the other end of the court embarassed by her loss. This guy was strong and it pissed her off. More than anything she hated to lose, a trait she found unladylike and distasteful. The growing heat added to her negative thoughts.

The boy hardly broke a sweat during their match as well.

"Yeah, it was." She approached the net and shook hands with her victorious opponent.

 _'No! I'm so upset! This means I only have to train harder!'_ She looked down and gave a wry smile,' _It was only a one point match, I'm sure I could've turned tables if we had a longer match.'_

"It was my first time against someone specializing in serves and volleys and it wasn't disappointing." He complimented her skill further,"You were very quick to approach the net."

"I didn't ask for your name..." Hiyori realized; her face flushed up considerably due to the heat and sweat that dripped down the sides of her face. As upset as she was in her defeat, it was indeed a satisfying match. In the end her opponent recognized her strong points which she found was sweet and insightful.

"Your father introduced us to you." Yuushi looked down at her fatigued form,"You live next door to me now."

"Next door...?"

"You were quick on your feet when we met." He referred to the time she shyly sped back inside house.

"Oh. You're Oshitari. I'm sorry, I didn't like being put on the spot."

The boy sitting at the side of the fence waved and called out to them on the court. He lifted up two bottles of water for them to see.

"Hey! Come drink up!"

The ten year olds at the court approached the giddy boy and Yuushi took one of the bottles from his hands.

"This is Kenya." Yuushi introduced his cousin to her.

"Another Oshitari?" She pointed back and forth to the two of them,"Brothers?"

They shared the same hair color, but Yuushi had it much longer than Kenya's unruly hair.

"Nah, cousins." Kenya corrected,"Here, have this." He pushed the second water bottle in her hands,"I don't need it. You two got more of a workout than I ever did."

Thanking him, Hiyori accepted the offer and drank from the bottle; not stopping until she reached the bottom.

"Whoa, you're even fast at drinking." Kenya noted,"I can do that too, you know!"

"It's just a habit." She smiled at the compliment, but it wasn't something to proud of. Kenya was a funny to guy to her.

"I noticed you swung too early mutiple times during our match." Yuushi commented and sat down next to Kenya to rest.

"I... probably need a haircut." Hiyori admitted. The hair that covered her face would get in her line of sight at times and cover her eye on the ball.

Kenya and Yuushi looked at each other questioningly and thought back to the day prior when they first met Hiyori. Short hair and boyish clothes. The Hiyori before them was cute and much more fitting. They stared back at her and Kenya was waving his arms arms around in disapproval.

"No, no! Just clip your bangs to the side and it should be okay! You can even cut them a little." He made a cutting motions on his own bangs.

Yuushi opened his bag and removed the rubber band that held his sports bars together.

"Or tie your hair up." Yuushi thrusted the rubber band towards her,"I'm sure your neck will feel a lot cooler. It's getting really hot."

"Sure?" She noted the cousin's strange behavior, but still took it up and gathered her hair gently into a high ponytail. The length of the ponytail reached a little further down her shoulders

"It certainly made my neck feel cooler."

"It also got some strands out of your face." Kenya pointed out to her and twirled his own bangs,"Don't hide such pretty eyes."

Hiyori liked being praised, but anything about her appearance made her heart beat erratically like a drum. Could those two boys hear it?

"Don't be an idiot, Kenya. You got her embarassed."

"What? It's true though." Kenya made a satisfied noise,"Mm! And they remind me of Kopiko's cream coffee limited edition candy."

"Oh I know that flavor," Hiyori added, but didn't catch Kenya's comparison to her eyes,"It really is delicious."

"Right?" Kenya nodded his head approvingly,"We have some good taste, Yuushi."

Yuushi shook his head and dug his cellphone out from his tennis bag,"It's almost noon time. We should head home for lunch, Kenya. Mom should be home cooking right now."

"Oh! Lunch!" Kenya got up on his feet.

Hiyori packed up her own things and lifted her tennis bag over her shoulder.

"I'll get going too." She said as she walked past the two boys,"Thanks for today, you two."

* * *

"Yuushi." Kenya poked his cousin,"Yuushi!"

"What do you want, Kenya?"

Yuushi was busy tapping away on his phone.

"She's leaving. We should invite her to lunch at auntie's."

"That's why I'm messaging my mother."

"Eh?"

"We have to ask for permission first, idiot." Yuushi explained,"We can't go inviting people as we please."

"Done yet?"

"Yeah." Yuushi flipped his phone back down and stuffed into his pocket,"Then let's catch up. I can't even see her from here anymore."

"All right, I'll see you then."

Kenya went on ahead. It was his chance to get to know her without Yuushi embarassing him with his name calling. He saw her lone figure aead along their home street and ran even faster towards her.

Hearing his running steps, Hiyori turned around and finally noticed him behind her.

"Oshitari?" She called out to him,"What's wrong?"

"Katagiri, if you're free the rest of the afternoon, do you want to eat lunch at our place?"

"Sure, but is it all right?"

Her cheeks were still flushed from the recent match which Kenya found very cute. And those eyes that stared up at him were absolutely sparkling.

 _'Yeah, she's really cute...'_ Kenya had to admit and looked away for a brief second.

"Oshitari...?" Hiyori asked him one more time,"Is it all right?"

Snapping back to reality, he shook his head and flashed his signature goofy grin.

"For sure. Yuushi just contacted his mom. It should be all right."

He walked on and Hiyori followed beside him at her own pace. 'Cute, but super cool' was his impression of her. And sporty, something he really liked.

"Oh, your cousin is here."

Yuushi was trailed behind them slowly, still tapping away on his phone. Hiyori and Kenya waited for him to catch up. Upon approaching the two, the longer haired boy said,

"Mom just said 'yeah' to having Katagiri over for dinner."

"Just now?" Hiyori asked,"But didn't Oshitari.."

She tripped over her words a little.

"Oshitari...?" She repeated again,"Oshitari."

The two cousins looked down questoningly. Yuushi was the first to understand the problem.

"Both of our family names are Oshitari. It's all right to call us by our name."

Kenya mused aloud,"That's right huh... well, that's fine with me. Call me Kenya."

Yuushi introduced himself again to Hiyori,"Just Yuushi is all right."

"Hiyori is okay with me too." The girl nodded her head in approval,"I'm sure it'll be a lot easier."

When the three kids arrived at Yuushi's household, Kazumi welcomed them warmly. On the table were eight steaming takoyaki balls on a small plate waiting to be eaten as an appetizer. The start of the trio's friendship started when Yuushi and Kenya were fighting over the last piece of takoyaki.

"Yuushi, that's mine!"

"It's fine, you ate all the sports bars on the way home."

"Be fair!"

"I should be the hungry one, Kenya."

"Yuushi!"

"Kenya."

The two bantered from across the table on until they figured it was better to play first come first serve, but the girl beside Yuushi had the idea before them. The plate of takoyaki was cleared up and Hiyori was chewing complacently with a small smile. Swallowing the last spoils of war, she looked back at their disappointed faces.

"No speed, no life." She said as she licked some sauce at the corner of her lip.

Everything had started there.

* * *

A/N: I'm going to completely honest right now. I can't believe I uploaded this LOL.

This fic is a romance comedy drama. I will go from the Oshitari cousin's and my OCs' childhood to their junior high school life. I'll fix a few errors later. It was 3 am when I uploaded this. 'Till next time. ╮(´･ᴗ･` )╭

Edit 5/16/16 : I was writing chapter two and realized it would be a better fit to add it into the first chapter. The second part of the prologue will go into Yuushi's move to other elementary schools, then his eventual move to Tokyo and attending middle school at Hyotei Academy.


	2. Prologue ー 2 of 2

chisato710 : Thank you for the favorite! I appreciate it. ^^

* * *

 **Prologue**

l

 **2 of 2**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

 _'Thoughts' -_ italics

* * *

"You're... moving?"

"Dad got a job offering as a private doctor. It'd be a new experience and he decided to take it."

Kenya couldn't quite believe that his cousin would be moving farther away from their current home. It meant he wouldn't be able to attend Doutonbori Daini. No more walking home to and from school and hanging out with him together with his most recent neighbor Hiyori.

"Your family can move without you for now! You can stay at my house!" Kenya suggested in an act to get him to stay with them longer,"I'm sure my parents won't mind!"

"Kenya, calm down."

"How can I? You'll be leaving us so soon!"

"I'm not going anywhere."

"What do you mean you're going somewhere else-" Kenya paused for a moment, a stray tear was threatening to fall from the corner of his eye,"Eh?"

"I said, I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be in Naniwa. Just a little farther away, but I'll still be here to visit anytime."

It was only a year after that the tennis trio was in danger of splitting up. It wouldn't be the same after Yuushi left. Kenya and Yuushi have been together since they were kids and the thought of him not being nearby was foreign.

"Did you tell Hiyori?"

"It's funny. She said the same thing as you, but instead of hearing me out she slammed the door on me and shouted that I was a huge idiot from her bedroom window. She was also rude enough to throw a crumpled piece of paper at my head."

"No way..."

"Yeah, but it had her number on it so..."

Kenya held back his tears. He was a boy. And big boys like him didn't cry.

"Anyway, I'm walking back to the house." Yuushi stood up from the floor of Kenya's bedroom and proceeded to the door with his sleeve raised to face,"I'll be helping my parents and Erina out with their packing."

"Yuushi-"

The door slammed shut behind him and Kenya was left alone in his room.

"Yuushi, were you crying?"

* * *

Yuushi Oshitari moved two more times after that first move from grades five through six and pretty soon he became immune to the whole process. Despite that, the distance didn't affect the close relationship he had with Kenya. They argued and bantered with each other almost always; a sign of a healthy relationship between the two. Over the years, everyday visits became something that occurred once a month.

For Hiyori on the other hand, withdrew quickly from any conversation between the two cousins. When Yuushi moved for the first time, she was similar to how she once was before meeting the Oshitaris; reserved and quick to remove herself from any situation when she felt bothered. Her love was for tennis and Yuushi was the only person who made her love it even more.

They were twelve years old now. Hiyori was on her cell phone with Yuushi whom she answered after his third call attempt.

There were four words before she went utterly silent.

"I'm moving to Tokyo."

 _'It had better be the last time_.' Hiyori had only thought to herself. Similar to Yuushi, she had gotten better at coping with her friend's frequent moves. Unlike the first time she reacted after he dropped by her house to tell her about his move, she was calm.

"You could've called me first instead of texting me that. I didn't know how to react. Why Tokyo of all places?"

"As always. This time my sister wants to study nursing at the college the university hospital is associated with."

"Erina is really smart. I bet if she took the exam now, she'd pass with flying colors."

"Probably."

Another silence between both ends of the line. Hiyori had trouble expressing herself in person, but it was a lot harder talking over the phone.

"Did you tell Kenya, yet?" She asked,"He'd be crying for sure."

"I've told Kenya and he was fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Perhaps Kenya too had become immune to the pain that came when Yuushi moved. Both Hiyori and Yuushi knew Kenya well enough that he wasn't very good at hiding his emotions. It was a grade F in that department because Kenya was the worst at lying.

"I'll walk over to his house and check in with him." Hiyori reassured Yuushi,"I bet he's all right."

"Hiyori." Yuushi called her name from the other end of the line,"Be careful. It's already getting dark outside. Thank you for looking after that idiot."

"Of course. Take care, Yuushi."

Yuushi thanked her before ending the call and Hiyori prepared to head out towards Kenya's house. The more Yuushi had moved over the years, the farther apart he was. Hiyori was thinking about the declining frequency of his visits were as it happened.

She wrote a note telling her father that she would be at Kenya's house and stuck it to the television that he always watched in the morning. She grabbed her parka with a fur lined hood and slipped it on. She kept her usual house outfit consisting of a pair of shorts and t-shirt on and stepped out into the chilly air.

The house next door to hers still stood tall. Whenever she left the house, it always reminded her of Yuushi, but not was not the time to think about it.

After walking several more houses down the road, Hiyori was now standing outside of Kenya's house and the light in his room was off. Regardless, Hiyori rang the door bell once and waited for someone to answer. After a minute or two, the door opened revealing a little boy in an oversized sweater and shorts.

"Hiyori nee-san?"

"Good evening, Shouta-kun." The younger girl greeted the little Oshitari,"Can you call your brother downstairs, I need to talk to him."

Rather than talk to him, Hiyori wanted to be sure Kenya was all right.

"Mm..." Shouta looked nervously behind him and stared up the dark staircase of the house,"I think it's better if you come inside."

* * *

Shouta knocked on the door to Kenya's bedroom several times and called out to him.

"Kenya nii-san. Hiyori nee-san is here to see you."

The two heard a groggy voice reply from behind the door.

"Don't let her inside the house. Tell her I'll call her tomorrow. I can't let her see me like this... not right now..."

' _Kenya...'_ Hiyori's hands clenched tighter into a fist,' _You idiot!_ '

"Shouta."

"Yes?"

"Go back downstairs, okay? I'll have a little talk with him."

"O-Okay..."

The little boy complied and Hiyori listened to his tiny thumps as he descended the stairs. Once she was sure that he was at the bottom, she entered Kenya's dark room cautiously. Then she heard it. A sniffle followed by a sound of shuffling from the bed.

"Shouta, I thought I already told you not to enter my room right now."

"It's all right. It's just me." Hiyori replied in the darkness as she approached his bedside.

"Just you..." Recognizing her voice he yelped,"Hiyori?!"

As soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed his form shifted and his back was up and lying against the back board of the bed.

"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you." Hiyori apologized sincerely and crouched at his bedside. She was the one who had barged into his room without his consent. He even told Shouta to keep her out. "I'll turn on the lamp, okay?"

Hiyori removed the gloves that covered her hands and reached over to his bedside table. A hand grabs her in an instant. The boy's grip was firm on her hand, yet it was shaking. Which gave Hiyori even more of a reason to worry about him.

"Hiyori, please dont. I don't want you to see me."

"Kenya..."

Her hand retracted from the table and the grip on her hand lightened up. The boy on the bed continued to hold her hand in his. The hand that held hers was rough; similar to the dominant left hand she used when playing tennis.

"You're an idiot." Sighing, she placed her other hand on top of his.

"Yeah." Kenya sniffled in the darkness.

"A real idiot."

"I know."

"But that's okay." Hiyori rested her head on the edge of the bed and whispered,"I'm glad you suck at hiding your emotions, Kenya."

Kenya didn't respond and only sniffled even more. The darkness made his room feel even colder and their hands were starting to freeze off.

"Hiyori."

"Mm?"

The eleven year old released his hand and turned over the blankets on the bed.

"Get in here. I know you're freezing if you're wearing what I think you're wearing."

The girl's eyes twitched in annoyance, but she was sure the boy was feeling a little better.

"There's nothing wrong with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt in the winter, all right?" It was all she could retort with.

She stepped onto the bed and snuck under the covers beside Kenya. The moment she pulled the covers over her body, Hiyori felt the heat that was radiating from his body. She couldn't help but shift closer to him and tuck her head under his neck.

"If you have more tears, let them out." She said as she rubbed her watery eyes on his shirt,"I don't think I can take it anymore either."

A pair of along arms wrapped around Hiyori's waist as soon as the last word fell from her lips and she felt Kenya's head rest atop of hers. Those arms brought her closer to his body. Hiyori no longer felt like she was freezing. She felt the hot tears dripping slowly from Kenya's face. It didn't take long for her own to soak even deeper into the cotton of his shirt.

* * *

The following morning, Kenya woke up with sore eyes. When he attempted to move his hands up to touch them, he realized several things. Kenya Oshitari was holding Hiyori Katagiri into his chest the entire night beside him. In bed. Number two, her bare legs were entangled with his. Her arms were also wrapped around his waist and she was sleeping so soundly against him.

"Are you awake, Kenya?" She mumbled,"How are you feeling?"

Those gorgeous eyes slowly opened up to stare up at him. Without a doubt, she could feel his heartbeat against her own chest. That next realization hit him really hard.

He could not keep her eyes off of her. She blinked back at him until he got his arms to function properly and retracted them back to his sides. There was something he felt like doing all of a sudden.

"I'm gonna dye my hair."

The spontaneous decision was too random to Hiyori who was hearing those words come out of his mouth.

"What?"

"I'm going to dye my hair." He sat up from the bed and clutched the edge of the blankets,"No! I'm gonna bleach it! I'm heading to the store right now!"

And with that, Hiyori was left in Kenya's bed while he went out to buy some bleach for his hair. There was no use in following after him in his current state. She was also left wondering about how fast she felt his heart beating inside of his chest.

"He must've been really excited to change his hair color..." Hiyori pondered out loud before falling back asleep in his bed.

* * *

Hiyori and Kenya were eating nagashi-soumen after their playing a long rally at the tennis court. They were enjoying their last week before the start of their new school year at Shitenhouji.

Yuushi only called Kenya after his huge move to Tokyo, being that ever since he left Hiyori and Kenya were always together. It was certain that the family would stay there for good once Erina set her sights on the university she wanted to study for during her second year in high school. Moving up from Doutonbori Daini, Hiyori and Kenya went on to attend Shitenhouji Junior High.

The Tokyo school district had started sooner than Osaka. Earlier in the morning, Yuushi called up Kenya. His cousin took the wrong train going away from the school and ended up arriving to his first class in the middle of the first lesson. By the end of the day, Yuushi was absolutely exhausted. Later in the afternoon before Kenya met up with Hiyori, he got another call from Yuushi and his idea of the school completely turned a complete one eighty after joining his school's tennis club.

"Eh..." Hiyori asked as she dipped her noodles in the dipping sauce,"And in the end Yuushi also joined his school's tennis team?"

Slurping his noodles like a vacuum Kenya nodded his head before adding,"And he played against some egotistical, national level player who came and wrecked the whole tennis club to take over the position has captain."

Kenya reenacted the story according to how Yuushi told it to him. The whole thing sounded quite dramatic. Add in a fight for romance and you might have Yuushi's ideal kind of story. Imaging him in such a situation made her laugh; which she doesn't do very often.

"Sounds like something in an action movie."

"Right?" Kenya took in her laughter and laughed aloud with her. "As long as he keeps responding to the messages I send him, I'll be able to sleep at night."

"Does he know about your hair yet."

"Nah!"

"Geez..."

"Let's take a picture together and send it to him then!"

Hiyori motioned for him to come to her side of the table,"Then you come here."

Kenya switched seats and sat beside her on one of the stools. Hiyori wiped her mouth a final time with her napkin and straightened out the fabric of her gingham dress. The boy extended his arm above the table and positioned the camera to catch their smiling faces.

Kenya had the biggest smirk on his face as he typed in the caption of their picture:

 _'Don't we look like a couple, Yuushi?! (v´∀｀)v_ ' _\- Kenya_

"Kenya!" Hiyori yelped and reached out towards the phone, but his long arms keeped it out of reach.

"It sent already." He laughed in triumph,"You're one step behind, missy!"

"I can't believe you." She propped her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. "He's going to get the wrong idea."

A tiny chime sounded on the table and Hiyori made the quick move to snag the phone from the table top. Kenya's mouth was too full of noodles to protest and was too engrossed in his food to notice until the last minute.

"Your hair is so light now. You used to look like brothers next to Yuushi." She ran a hand through Kenya's bleached strands hair,"Now you're just... cousins." She stared at the picture for bit before scrolling down to read Yuushi's reply:

 _'Well, well. If it isn't the beauty-_

 _and a beast who ruined the other half of the picture._

 _*Aho._

 _What the hell did you do to your hair? I bet you didn't tell your mother either._

 _I'm keeping this picture because Hiyori is in it._

 _I'll just crop you out later._

 _\- Yuushi'_

"That bastard..." Kenya cursed after swallowing his last serving,"I'll destroy that guy next time I see him."

"It seems you guys are still very close."

"Of course. That guy is always calling me so freaking late at night or texting me during me class. He's always complaining about how bored he is! I even forget he's in Tokyo sometimes."

"That's a good thing isn't it?"

He smacked his hand down the table and drew the attention of several other customers in the restaurant.

"We're still close because Naniwa's Speed Star can conquer any distance, no matter how far anything or anyone is!"

"W-What does that have anything to do with that?" Hiyori was just as confused as the customers around them,"And your disturbing everyone here! Please settle down!"

That statement would be put to the real test sooner than he expected.

* * *

It was half a year into their first school year at Shitenhoji, mid October and still cold enough to see your breath every time you breathed. All eight members of the Shitenhouji tennis team were lined up in front of their coach and their manager, Hiyori, who was right beside him.

"S-Sensei." Kenya was chattering through his teeth,"It's colder than usual today, can we start warming up now? My ass is freezing..."

"Just rub your arms a little, Oshitari-kun. Our manager has a few important words for us today."

"Hiyori? What's up?"

The girl flinched ever so slightly at the sound of her name. That strange behavior persised throughout the school day. Others seemed to notice it as well.

"Ah, Ken-chan! What did you do to our little flower! Her cute face is looking unsettled!" He whispered into his ear.

Koharu Konjiki, the first in Naniwa's Baka Couple, had noticed it before it anyone else. His data tennis extended farther into his general observation skills.

"Quiet! I"ve done nothing wrong. Or at least I think I didn't..."

At the other side, Yuuji Hitouji, number two of the Baka Couple whispered,

"That's no good Ken-chan! You have to be more attentive to the girl of your affections!"

"Wha..?!"

It goes without saying, even those two noticed how Kenya stared at Hiyori these past few months.

"I will be moving to Tokyo this coming Sunday."

A series of groans were heard after delivering her announcement. She was calm about it, not once stumbling over her words.

"I have until the end of the week to assist you. Let's all work as hard as we can as always."

The whole team broke up from their line and surrounded Hiyori from all sides. The whole team had made it a goal to make her laugh at least once during practice, but starting now they only had less than a week to do so.

"Oi, oi. Don't lose sight of your tennis goals now!" Their coach shouted at them,"You can't afford to lose them when the time comes for nationals!"

Kenya was the only one to stay still; unsure of how to react. When he turned his head to look at her, she was staring back at him with a guilt ridden face.

 _'Don't look at me with that face...'_ He couldn't stand looking for so long and walked to the other end of the court to practice his swinging alone. ' _Especially when you never shown such an expression before... Even I don't know how to react.'_

Kenya wanted nothing more than practice to end as soon as possible. And when it finally did, he was out as quickly as he arrived in the court. There was no way he'd go home without talking to Hiyori. He waited outside the gate of Shitenhouji for almost five seconds and knew something was off.

"That girl!" That speed star hissed through his teeth. Kenya was almost seething. She definitely went one step ahead of him. He wasn't considered Naniwa's Speed Star for nothing and sure enough as he continued to run through the streets, he saw her running just as fast ahead of him.

"Oi! Hiyori! Why are you running?!" Kenya sped through the mass of people walking back home after the day's end.

"I'm running because I knew you would run!" She turned her head back in time to watch Kenya out run her immediately and grab her shoulder.

"And you thought you could run from me?"

Hiyori tried pulling away again, but he overpowered her and pulled her towards him with both hands on her shoulders.

"Talk to me." He looked her in the eye. That guilt ridden expression returned and it made him feel uncomfortable. "Please."

Looking away started to become a habit of hers as of late and Hiyori did just that in response to his pleading.

"My father accepted a new job at a university hospital in Tokyo." The hands that gripped her shoulders loosened up considerably. "He'll be following Yuushi's father to work alongside him."

There was a single thought that lingered in his mind for a brief moment.

The thought that despite being the fastest, he was the one being left behind by the two people who were closest to him.

"I was going go to tell you, but I was so nervous.' She admitted to him.

Kenya believed that much. Hiyori had trouble expressing her feelings when she kept in such strong emotions. It reminded him of himself; someone who could never hide what he was feeling.

"I know how sad you were when Yuushi left Naniwa. Now he isn't even in Osaka."

Hiyori referred to the night of his departure. She came to visit Kenya because she knew he would be in his bed moping around and it worried her.

"When I leave, I don't want you to feel alone and feel miserable because you're not."

A smile grew on Kenya's lips and he gently knocked Hiyori in the head with his hand. This girl didn't know how cute she was despite her tearing up in front of him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her head to his chest.

"I got it. Thanks for worrying about me."

* * *

A/N: *Aho/アホ - Yuushi's way of saying idiot or fool all the time. ╮(´･ᴗ･` )╭

Kenya gets over it. No worries.

*munches on popcorn*

Probably. ʅ（゜з゜）ʃ

Yeah. ʅ（lll ゜з゜）ʃ

I didn't really proof read. I left for college when I uploaded this LOL. ╮(´･ᴗ･` lll)╭

5/21/16: MADE A HUGE ERROR DURING THE TIME HIYORI WAS IN SHITENHOUJI. HUGE HUGE ERROR. I'M FIXING IT RIGHT AWAY.


	3. Idiot's Side：See You Later

patamon642 : Thank you for your follow and favorite! It made me very happy after coming back from class. ^^

diaaan: Thank you for following as well!

StarPup: Thank you for your favorite!

* * *

 **Idiot's Side**

l

 **See you later**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

On the Sunday afternoon of Hiyori's departure to Tokyo, Hiyori was standing outside of the departure area of the airport with Kenya. The rush of cars never ended; dropping off new waves of people who were in a hurry to check in their things for their flight.

Kenya's mother Mariko had graciously offered to drop off the Katagiri family at the Osaka International Airport before going to work. Jun, Hiyori's father, went on ahead inside the airport while he waited for Hiyori to say her goodbye to her dear friend.

"Make sure you do the thing I asked you to do as soon as you get home, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Kenya nodded his head senselessly. His mopeyness was accentuated with his slouching posture and down-turned lips.

" _Yeah, yeah._ " Hiyori mocked him sourly.

She was wearing her signature tomboy outfit. The usual combo consisting of a pair of shorts and t-shirt. She wore her large parka with a pair of dirty white sneakers covered in scuff marks.

Hiyori would've been mistaken as a boy again if she clipped her hair up into her cap, but it wasn't. Her hair was down and it was free of that boyish baseball cap she would often wear inside the house.

"You're seriously wearing that to the airport?"

Hiyori already understood his thoughts. There was no need to say more.

"It's what I feel most comfortable in." She said before turning her heel towards the departure entrance. "Any last words, Speed Star?"

Kenya's warm body pressed itself onto her back and he wrapped his arms around her neck. There really wasn't anything else to be said. The hug should've said a lot to her. Kenya was going to miss her. The skin that touched her neck could feel her quickening pulse.

He pressed his nose into the side of her head and closed his eyes for a moment.

' _I really am the idiot here.'_ The first year junior high student damned himself,' _I figured it out too late_.'

The hands that reached up to touch his arm brought him back to his senses.

"I got to go. Maybe you can visit Yuushi and I in Tokyo soon. Maybe vice versa."

That idea was funny. Hiyori and Kenya knew it would be difficult because of their fathers' jobs, but it wasn't impossible.

"Have a safe flight, Hiyori."

"See ya, Kenya."

It would be strange not seeing her on his way to school this week. How was he going to get used to it?

Reluctantly, he released her and watched her go.

Knowing that girl would turn around anyway to see if he was all right, he turned his back to her. He was definitely going to cry like the kid he was when he got home.

* * *

After his mom dropped him off back at the house, Kenya took a long, looping sprint around the neighborhood. When he returned home he went straight to the bathroom to wash up. The sweating boy soaked up a cold towel in the bathroom and wiped his face.

"Yup." He stuck his head closer the mirror and tilted his head from side to side while inspecting himself. "I'm in bad shape."

His eyes were puffy from all those stupid tears and his eyeballs looked twice as swollen compared to the night Yuushi had left Osaka. Kenya could barely open his eyes and he simply looked exhausted.

 _'Make sure you do the thing I asked you to do as soon as you get home.'_

Kenya remembered the instructions Hiyori had given him last night. He really looked liked crap, but at that point he didn't end up caring and dialed a number on his phone. After a few rings, the other end of the line picked up.

"Ah, this is Shiraishi. Who's this?"

"It's Kenya Oshitari."

His voice even sounded like crap and the boy at the other end of the line had to verify one more time.

"Are you... really?"

"Shiraishi, please." He was groaning now.

"Sorry, sorry. You sound like you just woke up. Are you doing okay?"

"Maybe after some Sunday practice. You on?"

* * *

Kuranosuke Shiraishi's 'Bible Tennis' and Kenya's 'Speed Tennis'. The two played some casual matches with their specialties. Every opporunity he took to play Shiraishi at practice never disappointed him. Shiraishi beat him most of the time anyway.

He was the prime example of how important the basics were.

"Well, this should be enough for the weekend." Shiraishi wiped the sweat that dripped down his forehead with the back of his hand. "It was a good practice."

"Yeah."

"I was surprised to not see Katagiri-san with you. You guys are always together in and out of practice."

Kenya didn't reply to the comment. The silence made Shirashi ponder a little more and he finally realized what he said might've struck something sensitive.

"A-Ah, my bad Oshitari..." Shirashi apologized and tilted his head down towards the boy who sat cross legged in the middle of the clay court

"It's fine. Even I feel like it's a dream."

"Oh yeah?" The Bible Tennis player sat down next to him and asked a few more questions.

"You guys are pretty close?"

"Yeah."

"You like her?"

There was a pregnant silence following that question. After swallowing the biggest lump in his throat, Kenya managed to answer.

"Yeah. I do. I like her a lot."

"So she's your girlfriend?"

"Yeah. Wait a minute-"

It was too late. Shirashi already had his arm around his shoulder to comfort him.

"I see. You wanted to play tennis with me to ease your mind. I understand. Leave it to me."

"Shiraishi." Kenya shugged off his arm and grasped a handful of his bleached hair into his hands,"That's not it. She's not my girlfriend."

"Serious? So you didn't even tell her how you feel?"

Regrettably, Kenya didn't realize his feelings until the very last moment. He shook his head.

"I don't know what to tell you there." Shirashi was admittedly at a loss. The girl Kenya liked was moving to a different city and he didn't even get to tell her how he felt. "But distance shouldn't be an issue. Text and call her everyday like you do with that cousin of yours."

 _"_ Like how you always play tennis, Oshirari." He tried to explain it using tennis his tennis skill as an example. "You're constantly upping your speed to keep up with your opponent, but it's like you have no limit."

 _'We're still close because Naniwa's Speed Star can conquer any distance, no matter how far anything or anyone is!'_

Kenya had said that before, hadn't he? Could he still do it? Close that distance past being just friends?

"If she'll be in Tokyo, that's even better."

"What do you mean by that?"

Shirashi was back on his feet and shot a finger up into the sky above them. The sun was slowly setting; dying the clouds into an orange hue.

"Because we're going to fight our way to the nationals! If we work hard enough, we'll make it to Tokyo and become the best in the nation. Then you'll be able to see Katagiri-san again. How's that sound?"

 _'If you make it to the nationals, you can come see Yuushi and I in Tokyo. It's important that you practice your tennis together with the team; so you can bond with these new people and see us again.'_

It was certainly going to be hard work to get there, but by the end of the day, Kenya was reminded why Hiyori wanted him to work even harder in his tennis.

"Oshitari?" Shirashi realized the other boy had been silent for awhile.

Kenya's sight became watery. He knew the dreaded flood was coming and it wasn't easy stopping it.

 _'That's right. There is no distance I can't cover. I won't let something like that stop my feelings. Just for today though, I'll let it all out. Then Naniwa's Speed Star will be back in action and always be one step ahead.'_

His teammate was going to see a pathetic side of him, but he didn't care anymore. Kenya was going to need a shoulder to lean on this time.

* * *

Kenya and Shirashi returned home before it got too late. Before the two went their seperate ways, Shirashi put a hand on Kenya's shoulder and told him one last thing.

"You can count on me from here on out, all right? That goes for everyone on the team. It's what teammates do."

Kenya watched him wave another goodbye and ride his bike back home on the side streets. For the past few hours, he had to admit that he was satisfied. Silently thanking his new right hand man again, he returned home and ate a good dinner prepared by his mother.

"Kenya-kun, are you doing all right?"

Mariko looked at his son from across the table with a worried expression. He knew what his mother was thinking already.

"I'm fine, mom." Kenya flashed a reassuring smile,"I'll be spending a lot more time in the tennis club from now."

His little brother Shouta was smiling deviously beside his mother and picking at his food.

"Kenya nii-san needs something to do in order to keep his mind off the girl he likes!"

"What was that, you little brat?!" The older brother reached over the table like he were moving to strangle his brother.

"Nii-san misses Hiyori nee-san!" Shouta was quipped into a little chant and raised his chopsticks in the air like a baton.

Kenya just sunk back into his chair defeatedly and looked towards the ceiling. "As if that isn't a given already..."

"Shouta-kun, finish your dinner." Mariko pushed a plate of fish closer to her youngest son.

"Kenya nii-san too!" He pointed at his older brother who thanked their mother for the meal.

"No, it's just you, Shouta."

Kenya removed himself from the table and washed his dishes. On his way back to his room, he patted his brother's head affectionately.

* * *

The line rang once, twice. Kenya was going to hang up on the third, but Hiyori picked up.

"Hiyori?"

"Oh, Kenya. Were you able to practice with Shiraishi? How did it go? I'm sure you can learn a lot from him."

A great practice, but in the end it turned out to be an embarassing, tearful mess.

 _'No way in hell am I going to admit that to her though_.' He decided to digress quickly.

"Yeah, and of course it didn't take long for that guy to beat me." Despite having casual rallies, Shiraishi was relentless.

 _'Enough about me, more about her..._ ' The hand holding his cellphone grew sweaty.

"Your flight. How was it?"

"It was only a little over an hour. We were able to unpack at our new place. It's completely furnished too."

"Good! Did you see Yuushi yet?"

"No, not yet."

"That's a relief."

"Huh?"

' _Did I actually say that?'_ Kenya banged his head on the table. ' _Shit_!'

"Kenya, what was that sound?"

"I-It's nothing. Never mind."

"About Yuushi though," She pondered over the line,"I don't think he knows about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I didn't tell him I was moving. I just said I'll see him in Tokyo soon via text."

There was an uncomfortable feeling he had with the thought of Hiyori meeting Yuushi again. It had him in a cross between worry and frustration. Kenya didn't get it, but the feeling rose even higher as she continued to explain.

"I just thought I'd wait. I'll be attending the same school starting tomorrow."

"What?!" Kenya sputtered out.

It got even worse from there.

"Yeah. And even better, Hyotei Academy has an integrated high school. We'll be together for awhile."

Kenya's arm was propped up on top of his desk, covering his free hand with his eyes tiredly.

' _Ah, I know this feeling.'_

Kenya knew it all too well. He was in denial for awhile, but he felt it everytime Hiyori got too close to Shirashi or Koishikawa during practice.

It was jealousy.

* * *

A/N: Wow I had spent the longest time choosing what kind of cover image I wanted for this fic LOL. I ended up putting together two halves of Yuushi's and Kenya's picture from their Pair Puri profile. As I'm also OCD, I need to perfectly center it so the two cousins share an equal part of the image haha.

I CANNOT BE BIASED. NOT NOW. THE STORY HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN. (/ಥДಥ)/

Thank you again for your follows and favorites! The next chapter will be "The Hopeless Romantic's Side - Hello Again" (totally Yuushi centric).

5/21/16: Using last names for other characters because it's just weird to be using their first name.


	4. Romantic's Side：Hello Again

**Romantic's Side**

l

 **Hello Again**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyoutei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

Hyoutei Academy.

A private school full of kids from well off families within Japan and internationally. It has a wide selection of food, lovely architecture and landscape, and a multitude of classes you can pick from. It was a lavish environment that Yuushi was progressively getting settled into.

If there was one thing that made it to his list of irritating things however, and it was the rabid fan girls spouting their love and admiration for their most recently appointed tennis team captain.

 _'Atobe-sama is so cool!'_

 _'His serves are the most elegant!'_

 _'Kya! He's looking this way!'_

Those were the kind of noisy things he had to hear at the start of the week. The train ride to Hyoutei made him doze off every time and to hear such incessant, high pitched glorification when he attended morning practice was awful. On days he didn't sleep well, it would give him a lasting headache that persisted through the first half of the day. As he passed through the hall of classrooms, he overheard the conversation of two of his peers behind him.

"I just came back from the faculty room and it turns out we're going to have a transfer student in our class today."

"Really now~ It's already October and we have a new student coming in? A girl's voice asked excitedly. "Girl? Boy?"

"Girl. She's a pretty one too. From what I noticed she isn't international." The other guy recalled and entered the classroom following Yuushi. "She has this really thick Kansai accent."

"Eh~ No way~"

Yuushi walked away from his gossiping classmates and set his tennis bag on the floor beside his desk before settling in. To his side he noticed a new, unoccupied seat shining under the light filtering through the window.

' _A pretty girl from Kansai, huh?'_

The nine o' clock morning bell signified the start of their first class. Most of the girls were still crowding one side of the room, and the boys were standing by the windows and sitting on top of their tables chatting away.

The classroom door opened and Yuushi watched as the sound sent everyone scrambling to their seats. Their homeroom teacher walked in with his attendance folder in hand.

"Everyone settle down now." Their teacher commanded as he picked up a piece of chalk. "All right, we have a new student in our class starting today. She just moved from Naniwa, Osaka. Welcome her warmly."

The teacher moved to rewrite the date on the board when one of his students asked,

"Ono-sensei, where's the new student?"

Looking to his side, he sighed for a moment before excusing himself from the room.

"Please wait a moment."

Their teacher approached the door and stuck his head out into the hall.

"Katagiri? I understand you're very shy, but are you going to stay out here all day?" Ono-sensei made a come here motion with his hands,"Please come inside the classroom. Yes, this way. There we go."

Ono-sensei went back inside the classroom followed by a girl. She stood in front of the classroom with her hands clasped in front of her, head tilted down to the floor.

"Your name?"

"Hiyori Katagiri. Please take care of me."

The class greeted her in unison.

"I've prepared a seat for you beside Oshitari in the back row. He's from Osaka as well, so you two already have something in common."

It really was Hiyori. A smile formed on Yuushi's lips. The childhood friend he left behind reunites with him at last.

What a nice plot.

Her bangs were freshly cut and swooped just above her eyes and the winter uniform flattered her small frame nicely. The boy that was talking behind him earlier wasn't wrong about her beauty.

' _Of course._ _She's always been cute though._ _The only pretty girl he knew in Kansai was Hiyori.'_

He didn't pay much attention to any other girl besides her back when he was in Osaka anyway.

He watched as she set her back down inside of her desk and stare at the front attentively like she didn't notice him.

"You said I'd see you in Tokyo..." The bespectacled boy was leaning his head on his hand and expressed his surprise to her,"But I didn't think the first time would be _here_ of all places. Why didn't you tell me that much?"

She tried to brush him off with a legit reasoning,"Class started, let's talk later."

"* _Nan de ya nen,_ Hiyori? It's just Japanese history. It's quite boring, don't you think? I can finally see your pretty eyes now that your bangs-"

The led tip of her pencil snapped the second she pulled it out of her bag.

"Yuushi...!" Hiyori hissed between her teeth,"It's my _worst_ subject...!"

The sound of Ono-sensei clearing his throat was heard at the front of the room, but most eyes were at the back watching the two friends interact so casually with each other.

"Oshitari. Katagiri. It seems you do know each other enough to call each other by your names, which is very exciting. I'm sure. But please wait until the passing period to resume your conversation and pay attention to me."

Yuushi adjusted the glasses on his nose. He got carried away, he'll admit that much, but he still blamed his carelessness. Hiyori just continued to stare at the front of the classroom and tuned him out for the remainder of their morning classes.

* * *

When the teacher left the classroom for morning recess, some girls crowded around Hiyori's table and bombarded her with their introductions and questions. It was amusing to watch; seeing her so popular on the first day of class. Yuushi knew Hiyori well enough that all she wanted was to get up from her seat and speed away.

That's where he came in.

"Hiyori." He sat up from his seat and weaved past the girls that surrounded her table,"Come here."

It wasn't a request, it was a command. Her face had lightened up considerably and he read it as a sign of relief.

' _Good_.' Yuushi had thought to himself. ' _I'm doing a service_.'

With an apology and a curt nod to the girls, she removed herself from her seat and followed Yuushi into the hall. After walking a few doors down from their class, he turned around and faced her.

"I was about ready to leave, but I didn't want to be so rude. It'd make a bad impression on my first day, you know?"

She made quite the impression already when she didn't follow the teacher into the classroom. She disliked situations where she was put on the spot, Yuushi knew that much. That hadn't changed since primary school.

"You're free from that now." Yuushi looked down at her with an amused smirk,"I couldn't stand how I was beside you the whole time and couldn't speak to you at all."

"You were also staring at me a whole lot during class. Were you even paying attention?" Hiyori was grumbling to him now,"It was embarrassing. Don't do that again. Please."

"I couldn't help it. I had trouble registering you were actually here because I was caught off guard. I'm quite upset."

And that was the truth.

"Eh? You're upset?" Her eyes dropped to the floor and she looked genuinely worried,"I just wanted to surprise you, that's all."

"If I had known you were going here, I would've skipped morning tennis practice to accompany you to school."

"Ah, you!" The vigor in her eyes returned and the girl hit his arm,"You sound like Kenya now."

Hiyori was comparing him to Kenya?

' _No way._ '

"How so?" Yuushi demanded an explanation to that comment.

"Saying idiotic things."

"Don't say that now. He's a different level of idiocy. A much _higher_ tier of idiocy."

"As a former tennis team manager, I disapprove of such behavior." The serious side of her personality was coming back to berate him,"I'd definitely be unhappy if you really did that."

"I don't know if I can even take you seriously." Yuushi bent down a little to reach her height and teased her. "You're cute even when you're telling me off."

The two bickered as Yuushi showed her around the first year building. It was refreshing to have her around again. The boy made it so they looped around to make a stop at the library.

"I have a few things I need to check out here before I show you what's outside." He opened the door for her first and motioned her forward with his hand.

After entering first, Hiyori turned around with a funny look on her face,"Were you always like this?"

"Like what?"

"A gentleman."

"Only to you, ojou-san." Yuushi replied smoothly.

"Ah, there you go again!" She pouted,"That's weird! Stop it!

"What is?" He listened to her demands while she following him through the aisle of bookshelves.

"You know what!"

"I really don't know!" He threw his hands up and shrugged sarcastically. "You have to tell me!"

"Just quit teasing me..."

"Yes, yes." He complied as he traced a finger over the spines of books and scanned its titles,"I really can't help it though, you're too cute."

' _That much is true._ ' Yuushi chuckled to himself.

"What are you smiling about?" Hiyori was sulking even more.

Could she possibly get anymore cuter?

' _One, two...'_ Yuushi counted in his head,' _And three.'_

One by one, he pulled a few titles from the shelf until he held three books in his hand.

"All done."

After checking out them out, he let out a hum of satisfaction. As the two stepped out into the courtyard, Yuushi noticed Hiyori staring very intently at the books tucked under his arm. It was a good idea that he put the titles face down so she could not see them.

"What kind of books did you check out?"

"I'm not sure if I should tell you," He answered in all honesty.

"How come?"

"You might think of me differently if you did."

That was also true. Some time before entering Hyoutei, he entered the world of romance novels and engaged himself in their movie counterparts. No one knew of this past time yet. Not even his nosy older sister.

"Oh..." Hiyori drawled disappointingly,"That's too bad, but I still want to know."

If they were going to be in class together all year long, she was going to find out eventually. Yuushi decided to tell her, but not without teasing her a little more.

"All right, all right. But promise me you won't see or treat me differently afterwards, okay?"

"Is it really that bad...?" Now she looked like she had seconds thoughts,"Will it affect the innocent image I've had of you all these years?"

He almost choked on his saliva. _'That's been your impression of me all these years? She's really in for something then...'_

"Prepare yourself for the answer then. Cover up your ears if you think you're not up for it."

"O-Okay." Her hands went up to her ears in a ready position, just in case she changed her mind.

"Romanc-"

"It's okay, Yuushi." Her hands flew over his mouth. "Even if you read erotica, I'll still be your friend!"

It was as if the whole world stopped there and became silent to look at them like they've done something completely wrong.

* * *

Yuushi was sitting beside Hiyori in the courtyard and held his head with both hands in silence. Not only was he embarrassed by her response, there were a few peers that overheard her outburst.

When she finished thumbing through the borrowed books, she scooted closer to him on the bench and patted his back in attempt to be comforting. However, the damage was already done.

"S-Sorry Yuushi. I shouldn't have been so quick to make assumptions." Hiyori tried explaining it to him,"You just made it sound so bad."

He placed his glasses back over his eyes and reflected upon his actions,"The fault is entirely mine. I couldn't help but tease you even more."

 _'And I still want to.'_

"This is because you didn't listen to me..." She covered her face up with her hands,"I didn't think I'd say this to anyone but Kenya- especially to you of all people."

 _'Ah. She's not actually angry is she? Shouldn't I be? My reputation was the one on the line.'_

It was hard to tell with that stern look she had on her face while she lectured him,

"You're such an idiot..."

* * *

A/N: * _Nan de ya nen -_ One ofthe Kansai dialect's variation of saying "why", "why's that" or "what the hell/heck/etc."

Ah geez, Hiyori is calling Yuushi an idiot? She was the one who publicly embarrassed him in a hall full of people lmao. Her personality is quite shy upon the first few meetings. Get to know her better and you get a selfless girl who often doesn't know how to properly express her strong emotions. It gets her blood pumping and she ends up being seen as someone with a short fuse (similar to Kenya). As of late, she doesn't do very well with compliments. She's very thankful, but she can't say thank you without showing how overwhelmed she is. For those who are unfamiliar with this trait, it's quite concerning.

You know, reviews help me know if I'm doing things right with my life right now LOL.  
*HINT HINT HINT HINT* (/ಥДಥ)/

Oh God, I also need to fix my anime canon timelines in my head. It's starting to affect my writing as well (But I know for one thing, Shitenhouji and Hyoutei start school in April; Shitenhouji being one week later than Hyoutei though)-

I'M NOT ALL RIGHT AND IT BOTHERS ME. (/lllಥДಥ)/

Next chapter is the second and most important part of the school day: lunch and afternoon tennis practice, hurrhurr-  
And texts to and from Kenya who's been bugging Yuushi all day which is a change of pace, ahahahahaha.

I'm not going to blame my first language for my incompetence in English, but it gets in the way sometimes.

That being said-

If there's something that makes no sense whatsoever... please tell me. I beg of you as my readers. (ŏ﹏ŏ。)

'KAY BYE. ╮(´･ᴗ･` )╭


	5. Yuushi's Tennis

Mau Mauk, herondalefan, eevee909, axelaya45: Thank you for following! I'll do my best to keep everything interesting!

* * *

 **Yuushi's Tennis**

l

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

"Yuushi..."

"*Nan ya? Not hungry?"

Hiyori and Yuushi were in the cafeteria ordering their food. Yuushi was carrying his tray holding a bowl of tonkatsu udon and several side dishes of deep fried vegetables and shrimp.

"No, that's not it..." Hiyori was still holding her empty tray and didn't know where to begin with her options. "I think there's just too much, don't you think so too?"

"We have students from all over the world who don't share the same taste as we do. This is to ensure it caters to everyone's liking."

She almost forgot where she was for a moment. Hyoutei Academy was indeed incredible. The cafeteria was a large dining hall filled with white clothed tables. There was even an Italian Greek fusion buffet today, but it didn't interest her more than the Japanese set meal that no one was in line for.

"Ah. They even have takoyaki."

"Oh?"

And takoyaki reminded her an awful lot about her old home in Naniwa. She noticed a middle aged woman behind the glass of the kitchen frying a fresh batch on the pan.

""Scuse me, ma'am." Hiyori caught the woman's attention and held two fingers up to her before pointing to the cooking takoyaki batter. "And one shio ramen set, please."

"You're getting two?" Yuushi asked.

"I figured I'd get an order for you too." She told him while keeping her eyes on the woman cooking her prize. "So we can eat some together like when we were in primary school."

"Ah, and here I was hoping that we could share from the same plate together."

The girl was busy accepted the first order of takoyaki from the cook and upon taking the bowl, she placed it beside the rest of Yuushi's side dishes.

"I didn't hear you earlier, but what were you saying?"

"It was nothing."

"Hm." She gave a simple reply,"Well, okay."

The last of the order was finally brought out and after buying their refreshments from the vending machine, they managed to grab an open table.

The lacquered wood chopsticks that were issued to them shined under the cafeteria lights and when Hiyori took them between her fingers they were the absolute smoothest.

Sitting across from each other, Hiyori and Yuushi silently put their hands together and prepared to eat their food. The two of them reached for their takoyaki first and gently blew their native snack until they were sure it cooled off nicely. They stuffed it into their mouths in one bite and upon sinking their teeth in, their evaluation was resolute.

"I didn't think I'd get to see takoyaki on such a fancy plate." Yuushi was the one who asked first. "What are your thoughts?"

"It's takoyaki for sure." She answered between several chews,"But it doesn't remind me of Naniwa."

That was it. The flavoring wasn't to Kansai standard at all.

"It's not takoyaki from Osaka." He had to agree between his own bites,"It's not bad but it's not authentic."

"Oshitari? What are you eating today?" A red headed boy came from behind Yuushi and carefreely dragged a spare chair from one of the tables to sit with them.

"It's you again, Mukahi. If you came here for food, you can take this."

He slid his last few sharings of takoyaki towards the boy.

"Oh! This looks good!" He reached over quickly and snagged one up with a fork, but Hiyori quickly stopped him before he was about to pop it into his mouth.

"**Akan!" She slapped his hand away with her free one.

"Whoa lady, why are you touching me all of a sudden?"

"You should be blow on it first if you don't want to get burned. It came out of the pan recently."

"Oh..." The red head placed the ball back on the plate and split it in half to let the insides cool.

"Right, Mukahi-"

"Ahn?" The boy asked with a stuffed mouth.

"This is Hiyori Katagiri." Yuushi introduced them to each other,"Hiyori, Gakuto Mukahi. He's also in our grade."

"Yo!" Mukahi bobbed his head at her before shoving a few more takoyaki balls into his mouth.

"H-Hey, be careful..."

"It's fine. He usually learns his lesson after doing something stupid." Yuushi reassured her as he blew on his serving of noodles,"Sometimes."

"Uwah! Yeah! Those were good!"

 _'You clearly haven't tried real Osaka takoyaki...'_

* * *

The school day seemed to last forever, but at the end of the day, Hiyori was feeling immensely relieved. It was a little too early for Yuushi's practice, but he went ahead to get changed and assist the others in hitting volleys to other members of the club.

As she packed away her math notes and was prepared to follow after him, but on her way to the door she was rushed by one of the same girls that came by her table during the morning recess and one other unfamiliar girl who stood taller than Hiyori.

"Oh, Katagiri-san are you going home now?"

"We were wondering if you wanted a guide around the school!"

She was actually caught off guard by these two girls and didn't really know what to say. Hiyori's mouth was open to speak but her voice was empty. After staring at the floor for awhile, she sped past the two girls and slammed open the door to the hall hastily.

"Excuse me!"

"K-Katagiri-san?!" One of the girl's called out to her but it was too late. She was already running out towards the courtyard.

Her hand reached out to the handle of the glass door, but she ended up grabbing another person's hand. Already feeling embarrassed, her hand retracted immediately and she stepped back; only to bump into the face of another.

Hiyori felt like dying right there.

She turned around to apologize and was faced by a boy with his brown hair tied up behind him.

"I'm really sorry."

Then she was out the door again. She stepped down the cement stairs leading down the brick path outside, but she stopped to catch her breath. Stamina was certainly a weak point of hers. It was like that even before she met Yuushi and Kenya.

"Hey, you all right?"

The boy she bumped into at the door was going down the stairs and asked her. Reaching her step, he stood next to her and bent down to look at her face.

"Naa," He asked her again,"You are you okay, right? You were panting really hard there..."

"Y-Yeah, I'm sorry about earlier."

"It's nothing to worry about."

The boy was wearing a polo shirt with a simple light blue and white design with a pair of navy shorts.

"That outfit..."

"Oh, this?" He looked up proudly and turned around to show his tennis bag,"I'm a tennis club regular."

"Really now?" This caught her attention now.

' _He must know Yuushi._ '

It dawned upon Hiyori that she had no idea where the tennis courts were and the boy's practice was about to start.

"What's your name?"

"A-Ah... Ryou Shishido." He introduced himself,"Why?"

"You're going to the tennis courts, right?"

"That's right."

"Can you take me there with you? I'd like to watch a friend of mine during the practice."

"A friend?" He scratched his head for a moment,"Well, okay. That should be fine."

It was quite a walk, but the two made it to the other side of the school where the courts were located. Looking up at the structure before her, Hiyori was awed.

' _Everything is just too much here..._ '

Shishido pointed towards the bleacher access from the entrance of the locker room.

"You can make it from here, right?"

"Yes, thank you Shishido-san."

Hiyori gave a nod in thanks and prepared to go separate ways until she heard Ryou call her back.

"Hey...!"

He caught her attention again.

"Yes?"

Then she saw his face heat up a bit.

"Who's your friend?"

"My friend...?" For some reason the question took her a bit to process,"Oh, it's-"

"Shishido! Practice is going to start! What are you doing?" Mukahi bursted from one of the doors leading to the tennis court and upon seeing Hiyori, he greeted her. "Oh, it's Katagiri! Yo!"

Similar to Shishido, he was wearing the same outfit.

"Mukahi-san? You're also on the tennis team?"

"Mhm! So I'll see you around!" He grabbed at Shishido's collar before he could protest and pulled him inside the entrance. "Hurry! Atobe is already playing a match! I want to play too!"

"Ouch! Mukahi-"

"Come on! Let's play against each other for some warm-ups!"

The door closed behind them quickly, leaving Hiyori outside wondering what had just transpired. The narrow steps leading to the bleachers were long and when she made it to the top, she saw four large courts side by side to each other. The bleachers were just as huge and it surrounded the whole stadium on all sides.

"N-No way."

She set herself on one of the seats closest to where most of the action was. All the courts were occupied. She even noticed Mukahi and Shishido playing against each other on the far left court. For someone so small, Mukahi really knew how to compensate it with his speed.

' _Did I just see him hit a ball while doing a back flip..._ '

There was a considerable amount of crowding on the third court closest in her line of vision. There were two people playing singles against each other. On the far side of that court was a boy with purple-black hair.

As Hiyori sat there and watched, he couldn't help but think he was exceptional. The first point she saw him make was his service ace. The side spin on the ball was so incredible that it made it seem like it never hit the ground.

Their referee called out the current score.

"Thirty-fourty. Game point, Atobe."

There was a large crowd gathering at the other side of the stadium and high pitched cheering erupted from the female audience.

The boy on the side of the court closest to Hiyori turned around for a moment to wipe his glasses. She approached the railing and leaned over it slightly to get a better look.

Yuushi was the one playing against him?

Noticing her prescence, he looked up from below the court and gave her a knowing smile. A feeling of excitement rose up in her chest; something that hadn't happened since they last played tennis together. She clutched the railing tightly and shot him a huge grin in return.

"Do your best, Yuushi!"

* * *

By the time practice had ended, the sunset was dying the sky orange. Hiyori continued sitting on the bleachers and waited for Yuushi to pick her up after finishing his business in the locker room. She heard the gate below open and he appeared before, motioning her to come to him. The two walked out of the stadium side by side and headed towards the train station.

"In the end you lost, huh?"

Hiyori had to admit; she was disappointed. She had never seen Yuushi lose to anyone and it was the first game he watched him play since he moved to Tokyo. Those two were head to head with each other, but that Keigo Atobe was just as good as him. It was a fact that also excited her. Tokyo had some great players after all.

"Your cheering was empowering though."

"Mm, yeah?" She tried joking a little,"I was so close to leaving because of Atobe-san's fan girls. I felt like I had a thousand daggers pointed in my direction when I was cheering you on."

"It happens every time he plays a match with one of us regulars. I don't know how he can stand such attention." He sighed before smirking down at her.

She noticed that devious smile of his from above her.

"W-What are you staring at me like that for?"

"If I drew the kind of attention Atobe did, I couldn't care less until I had yours."

"What are you going on about now?"

"Joking, joking." He waved his hand in apology before expressing surprise. "I was sincerely touched. I didn't think you'd actually come."

"Why is that?"

"You don't practice tennis very often anymore, right?"

"It's because I liked watching it more than I played it."

"Akan. That's no good." Yuushi stopped at the gate of the school with his hands in his pockets. "That's talent wasted, I'd say."

"Yuushi?" She turned around and faced him.

"You belong on a court to play, rather than sitting on bleachers to watch."

"That was when we were younger," She turned his back to him again and crossed her arms,"Besides, after you left Osaka I didn't want to play with anyone else."

"Ah? Not even Kenya?"

"Kenya is an exception. He was the only one I played and we always ate soumen after a game."

"Then why didn't you play with anyone else?"

The answer came simply to her and she laid it out to him in all honesty.

"Because it reminded me of how much Kenya and I missed you, Yuushi."

* * *

Hiyori and Yuushi entered the train after waiting some time at the platform and because it was getting a little late, there were less passengers on the train going back home. The two middle school students sat beside each other on an empty row of seats. Since they made it to the train platform, the taller boy had been quiet. Hiyori was afraid that it was because of what she said earlier.

When the train doors closed and began to move, Yuushi set his bag on his lap and took out one of the books he checked out at the library during the morning recess.

She studied the hardbound cover of the novel. There was a girl sitting behind a bicycle and holding the waist of the boy pedaling it. The two of them had big smiles on their faces. At the bottom was the title of the book.

"Crying Out Love, In the Center of... the World?" Hiyori read it again to herself aloud.

He also removed a stretchy material from his bag and put it over the book carefully from front and back.

"Why are you doing that?"

"Well, I don't want my hobby to figured out by just anyone."

"Hobby?"

He opened the book and flipped to the first chapter smirking,

"Romance."

It was the first time hearing of such a thing from him. She knew that he liked drama, but to consider romance as a specific hobby was a little strange.

"You're interested in love?"

He gave a low hum.

"Romance novels and movies- anything of the sort."

"I've learned something new about you, Yuushi."

"To be honest, I didn't want you to know."

"Oh..." Hiyori pouted and crossed her arms across her chest.

"What?" Yuushi had one leg over the other and looked down at her crabby face.

"There you go not telling me things again. Do you think it's embarrassing? I think it's fine."

"And if I tell you it's research for our future?"

"Didn't I tell you to quit kidding around?"

"But I'm not kidding, _ojou_ -san."

"I'll punch you." The long gaze he gave her as he said that made her think he was serious this time and it unsettled her. She closed her eyes and covered her face with a hand,"And I'm not kidding."

* * *

A/N: *Nan ya: More Kansai-ben, it's like: what is it?

**Akan: I love it when Shiraishi says this. It's pretty much: no, oh no, this is bad, etc.

And because Hiyori missed Yuushi, she didn't have much of a drive to play? Tsk. What was Hiyori's reason to play in the first a place before Yuushi and Kenya came into her life anyway? We might find out about that sooner or later; as well as learn more about her family. Hiyori's bouts of awkwardness will be explained too.

Next chapter: Kenya's Tennis. What is Kenya doing now with his teammates at Shitenhouji and without both Hiyori and Yuushi? Let's look into that next time!


	6. Kenya's High Speed Shitenhouji Life!

**herondalefan** : Thank you so much for your review! I was twirling around in joy when I saw it! I just want to communicate with my readers!

I feel the same way about Hiyori's character. It's my first time writing a character like this, haha. Yuushi also thinks everything was fine when he left, but he'll find out how much his departure from Osaka affected Kenya and Hiyori.

Since entering middle school she hadn't had any sort of personal ambition and like you said, she also just moved Tokyo! There is an idea I have in particular that will be crucial to this story and her development in the near future!

 **Mau Mauk** : Thank you so much for reviewing~ Right? He's always had a penchant for teasing and calling the player, _ojou-san_ LOL. I drew some inspiration from his interactions with the player and the other characters in Gakuensai. Yuushi is too hopeless right now lmao.

* * *

 **Working harder than ever! This is...**

l

 **Kenya's High Speed Shitenhouji Life!**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

Kenya woke up fifteen minutes before practice, finished his breakfast in under five minutes and arrived at school at exactly seven in the morning. His morning practice consisted of running several laps around the court with his leg weights and returning balls hit at opposite ends of the court.

As soon as lunch break hits, he's one of the first people who hits the cafeteria.

Three meals.

A little over five minutes.

It would be faster if his dorky classmates stopped distracting him with their antics.

Being a part of the broadcasting committee, he was in charge of noon announcements every Tuesday and Thursday.

He headed straight to the broadcasting room, delivered current school news before ending it with some manzai comedy and chilled there for the remainder of the lunch period. Kenya still didn't have an ounce of natural comedy however, and after school his seniors would train him in that art. That Tetsuhara also lent a hand as well.

Afterwards it was straight to after school practice, but before that, he had to head over to the neighboring classroom and pick up Hiyo-

' _Wait, wait-_ _Kenya. You fool.'_

It was then that he beat the truth into his head once more and had accepted the fact that she wasn't there anymore.

But old habits die hard.

Real hard.

* * *

That's how Kenya started to brood at the end of the school day. He was currently swinging his racket at the corner of the courts with pent up emotions.

When Kenya started to play back the call he had with Yuushi last night, he swung his racket with twice the vigor and fast enough to the point his swings became a huge blur. All right. So what if she watched him play again after one year? Two years?

' _She was really cheering me on despite my eventual loss._ ' He remembered his cousin saying.

Whatever.

' _He still lost! How uncool!_ '

"N-Ne, Kurarin..." Konjiki was nudging Shirashi's shoulder as he and Yuuji watched Kenya seclude himself from the rest of the group. "Oshitari-kun is a little..."

As if on cue, Kenya was yelling and making incomprehensible noises like an angry cave man.

Shiraishi could only laugh nervously. Even he didn't know the reason for Kenya's aggravated behavior, but the guy was going through some difficult times. For starters, Kenya couldn't see the girl he liked whenever he wanted now. When he came into practice, he got chewed out by captain Hirazen for being the only one questioning what was funny.

"Hey, Oshitari!" Shiraishi decided take a chance. "You look a little lonely out there!"

"Shiraishi I don't think..." Koishikawa was about to to protest to his actions, but Shiraishi held up a hand to stop him.

"Just trust me." He reassured his teammate before calling out to Kenya again,"I doubt your balance problem could be solved by swinging your racket aimlessly!"

"I'm not swinging it aimlessly!"

"Just quit doing it so obnoxiously! It's getting on everyone's nerves!"

That last comment made Kenya look at his surroundings. Then he noticed several eyes on him. Some with sheer concern and others in burning annoyance. The swinging stopped, as well as his incoherent grunting.

For the last hour of practice, he was made to do vertical jumps and simple leg bend reaches to improve his balance. In the locker room, Kenya was changing back into his uniform when Shiraishi and Koishikawa came up from behind him.

Shiraishi was leaning against the end of the locker. "If you got time afterwards want to grab a bite with us, Oshitari?"

Kenya agreed to it upon Konjiki's and Yuuji's urging. They seated themselves at a takoyaki shop a street down from Shitenhouji courts. While the five of them awaited for their orders, they had a conversation about their winter break that was coming up in a little less than two months.

"So Konjiki and Hitouji are planning on attending as much manzai as possible, Koishikawa and Shiraishi are spending time with their family..." Kenya mulled over what everyone shared.

"What will you be doing?" Koishikawa asked.

"Me too, I guess." Kenya shrugged,"My little brother gets pretty hyperactive during this time of year. I'm usually the one who takes him out to eat or walk in the park to tire him out."

"Oh, Oshitari-kun is good with kids?" Konjiki drawled, to which Hitouji commented afterwards. "How cute!"

"He makes it sound like he's taking care of a dog though!" Shiraishi had to laugh.

Kenya agreed with that comparison. Shouta was like a dog. A disobedient, hyper puppy that never listened to what he said unless their parents were the ones to tell him.

Their paper trays of takoyaki arrived at their table and everyone started to dig in. The cold air outside helped them cool down slightly before they pooped it into their mouths. After Kenya's first bite of takoyaki, he began to complain to his friends.

He had his elbow propped up on the table with the end of his chopsticks still in his mouth,"But if things turned out the way I wanted I would've planned to spend more time with Hiyori."

It didn't need much words. Everyone knew how close she was to Kenya. Nonetheless, everyone made the effort to make him look at the bright side.

"You should've held her tight-" Konjiki wrapped his arms around himself with a loving expression on his face.

"And never let go!" Hitouji finished the line by wrapped his arms around Konjiki tightly with tears in his eyes.

The sight actually made him chuckle.

"I did just that. The only mistake I made was letting her go."

Shiraishi and Koishikawa gave him a pat on the back from both sides.

"Thanks guys." He was ruffling his bleached hair in embarrassment now. He just admitted all that much. "I'm not letting it get to me. Besides, I'm not that selfish."

Shiraishi replaced his hand with Kenya's and started to ruffle his hair like a little kid.

"Everyone, just eat up! We still got some long days ahead of us." Shiraishi pointed his chopsticks at everyone and made sure everyone was paying close attention. "Next summer is the National's and we're going to win it, all right? No more slacking off!"

Everyone raised their hand in the air and cheered loudly.

"Especially you Kenya!" Shiraishi slightly pushed his head to the side before removing his hand from the younger boy's hair.

"Ow!" Kenya grabbed his head and rubbed it gently. "What are you saying now?!"

"You need to fix your balance if you want to help take us there!"

"And I will! Who do you think I am?" He jabbed a thumb towards himself confidently. "I'm Naniwa's-"

"Speed Sauna!" The whole table chanted together.

"Right, right! Speed Sauna...!" Kenya went along with it until his brows furrowed furiously at everyone. "What?! Not you guys too?!"

"Tetsuhara has the manzai in him!" Hitouji nodded his head approvingly.

"He is the '*tsukkomi' to the'*boke'!" Konjiki added.

It was definitely going to be an enjoyable, yet tough first year in the tennis club.

* * *

Kenya returned home after a fun outing with the tennis club. Shitenhouji was indeed a unique school centered around the joys of laughter and he was grateful to be surrounded by such a light hearted student body.

He immediately went up stairs to his room and took his shower before heading back downstairs to eat the dinner his mother prepared in the fridge before she left for work. She knew him well enough to make two large helpings of grilled mackerel over rice.

As reached out for the those delicious meals, he noticed a note beside another smaller bowl covered by a few other condiments:

 _'If you're reading this right now, you're probably Kenya nii-san._

 _I'm doing homework at a friend's house right now._

 _Don't eat my share again!_

 _-SHOUTA-'_

Kenya smirked at that brat's cute note.

He closed the fridge with his leg and approached the table with his dinner in each hand. A vibration was sent from one side of his leg and up his body, causing him to freeze abruptly.

"Ah, man! Someone's calling me!"

He quickly sat himself down at the table and shoveled his dinner into his mouth. The phone continued to ring in the pocket of his sweatpants.

' _Don't hang up. Don't hang up. Don't hang up._ '

The first bowl was done.

' _All right._ ' He moved the empty bowl in front of him and replaced it with the second. ' _You're next!_ '

The second victim was finished off faster than the first. With his mouth still full of rice, he dug the phone from his pocket and flipped it open hastily.

"Hillo, fu iz thif?"

"K-Kenya?" A girl's voice asked with notable concern.

He swallowed his last bite and managed to reply back coherently.

"A-Ah yeah, this is he."

There was a long silence over the phone before Hiyori asked.

"Did you just... finish eating dinner?"

"Yeah."

"How long ago?"

"Right... now..."

She made a prolonged sigh.

"I'm surprised you're still alive. Any normal person would've choked to death if they ate like you every single day."

"And this isn't any normal person you're talking to right now." He shrugged her off and almost burped into the receiver of the phone. "What are you doing?"

"Ah, well..."

Kenya heard the sound of rustling paper proceeded by something dropping.

"Sorry, I'm doing math homework right now." She told him through several grunting noises."Which is why I called you- I need help with it. My teachers at Hyotei already gave me homework..."

"Leave it to me! Math is one of my best subjects, I'll have you know!" Kenya was feeling pumped. It was his time to shine. "And English. I'm pretty good with that."

Hiyori was beginning to genuinely sound surprised by what she was hearing.

"I knew about your math, but English too? Ah, please help me with that too! How confident are you with English conversation-" She stopped herself from getting carried away and asked him,"You're not in the middle of doing anything right now... are you?

"Well, I just finished dinner." He checked the time on his phone before bringing it back to his ear. "And it's only eight. I can help you out."

It was like she was on the verge of tears from those magic words.

"Kenya! Thank you so much! U-Um, just let me find my pencil... Ouch!"

A large thunk followed after that. Kenya could already imagined her groping around the floor in a dimly lit room. It hadn't been a week yet and the poor girl already sounded stressed out by her school work. It was a bit saddening to imagine, but she had been working hard to get used to her new home and life in the big city.

He was sincerely glad Yuushi was there to support her too. Right when he had thought that, he received a picture message from his cousin. Opening it, his eyes twitched immediately:

 _'Don't we look like a couple?_

 _Romantic set up, no?_

 _-Yuushi'_

Enclosed was a picture of Yuushi on the train with Hiyori sleeping on his shoulder. It was dated yesterday evening. Kenya retracted his previous thought of him as he tapped away furiously at his phone keys:

 _'Haha. Okay, wise guy-_

 _I'm going to crop you out later. (=_=)_

 _-Kenya'_

Faintly, he heard Hiyori's voice talking again and brought his phone back to ear.

"Kenya? I got the pencil. Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yeah! Let me just wash the dishes real quick and head up to my room."

"Sure, I can wait."

"I won't make you wait."

"Huh?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?"

He got up from his seat and began to soak his dishes in the water of the sink before scrubbing away at the speed of light. The Speed Star of Naniwa. That's who.

* * *

A/N: _*tsukkomi/boke -_ Manzai is a type of comedy that involves two people, the tsukkomi and the boke. Tsukkomi is the guy who sets up the joke and the boke (idiot) carries it further. I probably explained it shitty but if you look up manzai yourself, you'll get a better idea LOL.

Hiyori's name in kanji is: 片桐 凛和

I was recently pm'ed this question, but I didn't notice until now (sorry Inner Tear)! In case anyone else was wondering, I've put it up here.

There's going to be a sort of skip into the next chapter: Kenya's cultural festival is coming up and Hiyori checks out the girl's tennis courts for the first time, where a familiar classmate recognizes her? She's seems friendlier than Hiyori thought, but it turns out that girl has a huge problem in her hands! Next think she knows, Hiyori butts into it and gets challenged to a game of- ***CUE IN TAICHI DAN'S DON DON DON DOOOOON***

What else is going to happen this school year? Even Hiyori doesn't know anymore.

5/15/16: One mistake after another! Katagiri into Itagiri?! I've changed what I found. Any more name errors? TELL ME. THANKS.


	7. An Aggressive Hiyori?

**kokekokko:** Oh, it's Toriko! Nice seeing you again, bud. Hey, sorry about the long updates on my K fanfic. Ever since I caught up with Return of Kings I have no idea what to do. I've reached a stump I need to get out of. And about Hiyori, I'm doing just that. She's often seen as this serious person, but has quite a bit of quirks (which are seen as cute by the Oshitari cousins on most occasions). Serious, yet an airhead. Is that possible? I'm fleshing her out as I go. Thanks for the reviews~

* * *

 **It's quite strange to see...**

l

 **An Aggressive** **Hiyori?**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyoutei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

Hiyori was overjoyed with the help she received from Kenya this past month.

Her eyes were visibly sparkling and she was looking more alive than usual during math, the last class of the day. She remembered how people often underestimated Kenya's intelligence in elementary school, but it was mainly because of his inability to sit still. At the end of the school day, Hiyori pulled her homework from her bag and went up to the front to hand it in. The math teacher Moriyama-sensei smiled down at her gently.

"Excellent work on the assignment from two nights ago. It was difficult, but you were one of the few to pull it off. I look forward to more great work from you."

"Thank you." She thanked her teacher and Kenya inwardly for giving some of his time to help her.

Making it back to her seat, Yuushi leaned to the side and praised her.

"You're one of the few to impress her."

"I really couldn't have done it without Kenya."

"Kenya?" Yuushi raised a brow at his cousin's name.

"Don't you remember? He's pretty good at math. He's been helping me out on the nights Moriyama-sensei assigned homework."

"I often forget that idiot isn't dumb at all." Yuushi pushed his glasses up his nose and collected his things. "I'll go on ahead, Hiyori."

"Ah, right. Practice. I'll catch up to you when you're done so we can head home together."

Yuushi headed straight for practice and Hiyori decided to take a better look around the school. She wasn't going to get lost this time. There was a certain place she wanted to check out though. There was another tennis court just beyond the one for the stadium the boys use for practice.

Upon reaching the courts, she was surprised to see that it wasn't a full blown stadium, but still had the same amount of courts. It was fenced at all sides and there were girls dressed in t-shirts and skirts with Hyotei's signature blue and white color combination.

Seeing them play against each other was refreshing. That went with watching any kind of tennis game. Be it doubles or singles. It made her remember the joys of holding a tennis racket and returning the ball hit into her side of the court.

"Katagiri-san?"

She heard a familiar voice beside her calling her name. When she turned to her right, she recognized the voice of the same girl that called out to her when she ran out of the classroom that one day.

"It's you..." Hiyori only managed to say. It was the first time she really took her time to look at her. The girl's dark red hair was tied up in a short side pony that reached the top of her shoulders and she sported the same uniform as the girls inside of the court. She had very kind eyes that were the color of amethysts.

"What are you doing there?" She asked Hiyori.

"I just came to see what was here in this part of the school. I knew we had a boy's tennis club, but I didn't think tennis would be this popular with girls too."

Hiyori squeezed the metal twine of the fence with her fingers and looked back at the practicing girls,"This is the girl's tennis club?"

The girl bobbed her head.

"Yes!"

"Mm, I see. Must be nice." Hiyori smiled to herself. "I'm guessing you're a part of it too."

"W-Well..."

"Hey! Inoue!"

Hiyori watched the girl's face change from kindness to distress in an instant. There was a group of three girls with their rackets in hand, staring in their direction menacingly. She recognized one of them as the other girl that came up to her with this Inoue girl during her first few days in class.

"Are you slacking?!" The girl with a high bun on her head asked Inoue with her hands crossed over her chest.

"We told you that you could practice once you collected the balls on the court! Or perhaps you want to quit now?!"

They called out to her one by one menacingly. Even Hiyori knew this treatment was just wrong.

Inoue looked visibly worn out now. Without another word to Hiyori, she tilted her head down and ran past her towards the entrance of the tennis courts. Hiyori looked back at those group of girls. They were quite a ways of way, but she heard their obnoxious laughter.

She shook her head disapprovingly at such rude behavior.

Hiyori decided to follow after her and see if she was all right. Walking around the perimeter of the court, she spotted the gate leading to the inside. The girl was there on her hands and knees picking up the scattered tennis balls all over the court. Quietly, she made her way over to her and bent down beside her. As she reached out for one of the tennis balls, her hand was gently touched by the girl's.

"Ah..."

"Hey." Hiyori smiled at her and snatched up the ball. "It looks like you need a hand."

"Thank you." The kind smile came back again and Hiyori went ahead to pick up the rest.

"In fact, you can stay here. I'll get the rest real quick."

"What?"

Before Inoue could even protest, Hiyori was already running around the court. In no time, she returned with an arm full of brightly colored tennis balls.

"That was... amazing." Inoue was left in awe. "Do you play any sports?"

"I do actually." She thought about it before a bit. "I play tennis."

"Tennis?"

"Yeah." Hiyori laughed sheepishly. "Just for fun though, nothing competitive."

The two leaned against the fence and chatted with each other casually. It was the first time she really talked to a girl about tennis to this extent. In primary school she had only hung out with whoever Yuushi and Kenya hung out with, which were just boys really.

"Inoue-san?" Hiyori stretched her hand out to her. "We're in the same class right? You also offered to take me around the school with your friend one time."

"Right. I noticed how nervous you looked that time and I wanted to apologize for being so insistent. That person wanted to know more about you." Inoue took her hand and grasped it firmly. "I'm Nobara Inoue."

"That person?"

The group of girls from earlier passed through her memory.

"She isn't your friend?"

"No..." Inoue's eyes drooped to the court again. "Kanazawa-senpai? She never was. I made the mistake of following her around. All she ever does is use people to her advantage."

Then from the other side of the court, the three girls appeared again and yelled from behind the fence. It was even more irritating to hear it a second time. Were middle school girls this nasty? Something unfamiliar boiled up inside of her.

The girls entered through the gate on the opposite of the court. They were tapping their rackets impatiently on their bare leg as they approached Hiyori and Inoue.

"Hey, you done yet? We want to play."

They scanned the court with their eyes thick with eyeliner and mascara.

"About damn time." One of them blew a thick bubble of gum from their lips.

"Oh, it's the transfer student from Inoue's class." That Kanazawa girl who Hiyori first saw with Inoue stepped forward and studied the two leaning on the fence. "Are you interested in joining the girl's tennis club?"

The feeling inside of her was bubbling up again.

"I am actually."

"Sweet!" She looked back at the two other girls behind her and nodded approvingly,"I can tell. She's much better than that pathetic excuse of a tennis player."

"Pathetic excuse of a tennis player?" Hiyori's lip twitched.

"Yeah." That menacing smile came back on Kanazawa's lips. "Inoue here had been demoted to the club's ball girl. Ne, Inoue?"

The group erupted in laughter once more. It wasn't hard to see how embarassed the red haired girl was. She refused to look up from her shoes. The uncomfortable, rising feeling in her heart; it was anger.

"Kanazawa-senpai, was it?" Hiyori asked with clenched fists.

"That's right." Kanazawa stared her down from head to toe.

"Are you the captain of the girl's tennis team?"

"Captain? Yeah, I guess that's me."

"You must be pretty strong to be talking so big." Hiyori mused sarcastically.

The girls sensed the passive aggressiveness coming from the Osaka native.

"There isn't anyone I haven't beat yet. You want to try me?"

"It'd be my pleasure." Hiyori couldn't stop the small smile that was growing on her face. "May I borrow your racket, Inoue-san?"

Inoue hesitated at first but she eventually pressed the racket into Hiyori's hands. Hiyori felt Inoue touch her arm lightly and she noticed the apprehensive expression she gave her.

"Please be careful, Katagiri-san..." Her eyes looked up at her almost pleadingly. "Kanazawa-senpai is very ruthless on the court. She does anything to win."

"Don't worry..."

 _'Because I do too._ ' Hiyori admitted to herself.

Taking up the racket, she suddenly felt empowered.

"A control racket?" She gripped it into her left hand firmly and did a few practice swings to get a quick feel. "This is perfect."

"Take score for us, okay?" The fired up girl asked Inoue.

"I got it."

"If you're ready, let's get started." Kanazawa was already at the other side of the court with her legs bent and holding the head of racket in one hand.

"One set match. Kanazawa and Katagiri." Inoue climbed into the tall referee chair announced the start of the game. "Katagiri's serve."

Hiyori went to her side of the court. Inoue threw her a tennis ball which she caught swiftly into her hand. She already noticed a crowd gathering from behind the fence around them.

 _'It's going to be quite a show._ '

Bouncing the ball, she studied her opponent across her.

' _She's got the positioning right, I'll give her that much._ '

Hiyori bent her knees and threw the ball into the air.

' _But let's see how she performs!_ '

She wound her body up as much as she could before serving it straight to Kanazawa. It was clear she wasn't expecting it. Kanazawa hadn't moved an inch from her position even after the ball hit her side of the court.

The ball bounced beside her and flew straight towards the fence behind her. It hit the fence with a clang; causing the crowd to flinch and step back farther from the metal barrier.

"F-Fifteen to love, Katagiri!" Inoue announced.

The crowd went utterly silent before erupting around them.

' _This adrenaline..._ '

It's been awhile since she felt such adrenaline rush through her veins.

* * *

Yuushi just finished practice and exited the locker room with guy was still spouting the gossip he had heard during their practice.

"There's still a crowd growing at the girl's tennis court! That must be a pretty good game going on, right?!"

Yuushi didn't see Hiyori observing their practice today so he had assumed she went home after he parted ways with her. There was no point in staying any longer. Not to mention he was still tired of keeping up with Mukahi's bursts of hyper and spontaneous behavior.

"Naa, Oshitari?! Are you listening?"

"As tempting as that sounds, I'm not going to use that as a reason to chase skirts." Yuushi brushed off his doubles partner. "Especially at the girl's court of all places."

"You're no fun at all." Mukahi started to sulk and walk off on his own. "They say one of the players isn't even a member at all-"

The red headed boy smashed a fist into his palm of his left hand.

"And she's beating the crap out of a third year regular!"

That piece of information grabbed his attention.

"Almost reminds me of how you came to play Atobe out of the blue; still in your school uniform and all. Oh! This girl is a fairly recent transfer student from Osaka too!"

Yuushi followed Mukahi anyway. Like Mukahi had said, there was indeed a massive amount of people crowding around the perimeter of the court. Probably a little over half the amount of students that came to watch Atobe play during game practices; which was still quite a lot of people.

They pushed through the tight spaces of the crowd to get a better look. Managing to secure a spot right behind the fence, they observed closely.

The girl on the side of the court closest to them was evidently breathing hard. Signs of falling was evident from the dirt marks peppering her skirt and top.

"You're the captain?! Don't make me laugh!" Hiyori's voice was yelling at the other end of the court. "You're just a bully, Kanagawa-senpai!"

 _'Hiyori?'_

It was strange to hear her voice so loudly. A lady shouldn't be shouting at all anyway. Where had her calm demeanor go? The sight unsettled Yuushi quite a bit. It just wasn't in her character. She stood cross court in her school uniform. No blazer, just her button up shirt without her tie and the standard green skirt. It was definitely similar to Yuushi's match against Atobe.

"Just shut up will you...?!" The regular growled back at her. She was just as heated up when she hit her serve.

Hiyori returned the ball, creating a steady rally between the two of them as if she were playing with her opponent. Clearly running out of stamina, Kanagawa hit a desperate lob towards the front of the net. That turned out to be a huge mistake.

She rushed to the front before jumping with her racket high in the air.

"It's over."

Her arm swung down her racket like a hammer and the ball was smashed right onto the baseline of the court behind the wheezing Kanagawa.

"Six games to zero! Katagiri's win!"

That was it. Hiyori had won. He was glad to see her victory on the court, however she seemed quite scary.

Kanagawa just stood there on her feet immobile. Like a spoiled child, she suddenly threw down her racket in frustration.

"And you ridiculed Inoue-san for being a _pathetic excuse_ of a tennis player." Yuushi could feel the anger laced in every word. "I wonder what that makes you, senpai?"

Kanagawa just ran out of the court immediately, followed by two other girls who grabbed her racket before running after her. If you asked him, it seemed like that senpai was the one who was ridiculed by Hiyori. Everyone started to clear out after that. Several members of the girl's tennis club were crowding around Hiyori like a flock of birds. The girl on the referee chair lifted herself off the high seat and joined in as she returned to Hiyori with her blazer.

"That was really Katagiri." Mukahi, like many others were still in awe. "That senpai was already worn out when we arrived and Katagiri still had some damn good control. Did you see how her overhead smash hit the baseline?"

"She's also a left handed serve and volley player like you."

"What the heck? You didn't even watch the whole match and you know her play style?"

Yuushi just crossed him arms and watched as Hiyori was evidently becoming overwhelmed by the masses of girls that surrounded her. As she was floundering around and looking for some way out, she noticed Yuushi and waved in his direction like a signal for help. The sheepish smile Hiyori shot Yuushi had eased him further.

"I've played against her countless times in Osaka after all."

* * *

-OMAKE-

Meanwhile in Shitenhouji

After practice, the Shintenhouji tennis club huddled in a corner of the court upon their captain's request. The first week of November hit and the cold was hitting them harder than Hara's *Moukohan.

"**Kinoshita Toukichirou is drawing nearer!" Their captain Hirazen announced. "Have we decided upon what we'll be doing?"

Everyone started throwing out their ideas in a messy fashion.

"Manzai!" Konjiki and Hitouji shouted in unison.

"Oh, manzai sounds really good!" Hara put his hands together. "Let's do that!"

"S-Senpai..." Shiraishi looked to Koishikawa and Kenya with a wry smile. "We can't learn manzai before the weekend hits..."

Hirazen was nodding his head in agreement.

"It could be possible, but it'd be too much work to train little Kenya here."

"Hey now!" Kenya threw his fist up in the air.

"Let's face it, boy! Your comedy sucks!"

"Ever think it's probably yours that sucks, captain?!"

"Hahn?! Say that again!"

"All right, all right. Maybe not manzai." Hara came between the two of them. "What else could we do?"

"Smooching booth!" Konjiki suggested next.

"Smooching booth?!" Shiraishi and Kenya exclaimed together. They couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"You'd be surprised by how many people would pay to smooch you, Kura-rin!"

"Would you seriously go with that Shiraishi?" Kenya was eyeing his friend.

"Oh~ you too, Oshitari-kun!" Konjiki was crooning at him now,"Lots of girls talk about how splendid of a guy you are~"

"Me?!"

"If you people don't make a decision soon, we might as well go with that!" Hirazen was waving their cultural festival admission print in their faces. "The upperclassmen girls identify the two of you as the club's cuties, I'll have you know. It's not a bad idea to consider."

"Oh my god..." Kenya slapped a hand to his own face. "I'm not going to have my first kiss stolen for the sake of raising tennis club sales... Wait!"

Everyone's eyes were trained on Kenya.

"I know how to play the drums!"

"Really now?" Hirazen seemed pretty impressed.

"So...?" Shiraishi had his hands to his chin in deep thought. "I mean... what can we do that?"

"A rock band?" Koishikawa suggested.

"Bingo!" Kenya swung his arm around Koishikawa,"He's got it!"

"And I can play the guitar!" Hitouji was getting into it as well. "Koharu can sing with Shiraishi-kun, Tetsuhara and the captain!"

"Nah!" Hirazen exclaimed and put his own arm around Hara. "Tetsu and I already decided on our own manzai group!

Their orange haired senpai explained even further,"This will be your guys' way of appealing to the rest of the student body- so we can cover more ground! We'll be sending this into the committee organizing the festival!"

The two senpai began laughing as they ran out of the court. They set them up real good. Kenya, Shiraishi and Koishikawa were just glad that they didn't have to embarrass themselves with their own manzai. They had Konjiki and Yuuji in the club so they didn't have to do it.

* * *

A/N: TAKING A BREAK FROM STUFF BECAUSE I'M GOING SOMEWHERE. BE BACK SOON.

*Moukohan: Yoshiyuki's... or rather captain Hirazen's name for Hara's overhead smash. When Kenya played doubles with Momoshiro, Hara unleashed and it hit Kenya's butt LOL. It created a huge bruise as a result.

**Kinoshita Toukichirou: The name of Shitenhouji's cultural festival and an alias of the historical figure Toyotomi Hideyoshi. I dunno. It's all strange to me too. Okay Shitenhouji.

So Hiyori... you're secretly hot blooded?! Well, I think anyone would be pissed after hearing someone talk like that. I mean... if that were me, I would've smacked the shit out of Kanagawa first thing LOL.

Next time is: Hiyori gets some unwanted attention starting now... but mainly from girls? AND WINTER BREAK BEGINS! What are everyone's plans? Yuushi will be visiting Osaka with his parents and his doting older sister Erina to spend the holiday with Kenya's family. Kenya will be in for the greatest surprise he's had all year. Hiyori is also traveling back to Osaka with her father for different reasons. Yuushi's father Eiji reveals the reason why winter is a bit somber in the Katagiri household...


	8. Who is Katagiri to Oshitari?

**herondalefan:** Thank you so much again! My god, I had so much fun writing the last chapter. We'll go into how Hiyori will be involved with the tennis team soon. About the girl's tennis club positions... it seems a lot of of things are screwed up about it LOL. You'll find out in a separate chapter dedicated to that. Atobe's relationship with Hiyori will also be closely related to her involvement with the club. We'll see how everything plays out after their winter break!

* * *

 **It's only their first year in middle school and yet people are thinking about ridiculous things... as well as Yuushi?**

l

 **Who is Katagiri to Oshitari?**

 _Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyotei's Hopeless Romantic_

* * *

In the middle of their English class, Yuushi had his hands inside the space of his desk. His pencil was no where to be found. Hiyori rolled her eyes when he pulled them back onto the desk to reveal an awkward looking shaped pencil between the fingers of his right hand. He began to tap it onto the surface of his desk as he semi listened to their teacher's lecture. Hiyori even wondered how such an odd distraction became his hobby.

As soon as he opened his mouth, she clicked her tongue lightly. A talking Yuushi during a lecture almost always meant consequences.

"Someone has been getting popular."

"Who is?" Her eye twitched ever so slightly at the comment.

"I wonder."

Maybe popular wasn't the word.

' _Maybe some abnormally long lasting fascination_?'

That's all. There were a considerable amount of tennis club members that have been dying for her to go to practice since that day at the tennis court. The memory caused her to flush up in embarrassment. Again, she was never too good with crowds.

"You know it." Yuushi saw that look on her face and gave her a knowing smug.

"I really don't want to think about it-"

"You should at least prepare yourself again. The lunch period is coming."

"Like it has been for the past few weeks." She nodded her head tiredly. "You'd think it would've stopped sooner."

For the past few weeks, there would be at least one girl lined up against the wall outside their classroom door waiting for her. Morning. Lunch. At the end of school day. They would invite her to things like karaoke or eating at a burger joint, but Hiyori didn't like singing or greasy food. Perhaps if she was invited to some decent takoyaki or some place where they served nagashi somen she would consider.

"If it were anyone else." Yuushi was drawing odd lines into his notebook now. "But it's you so-"

"Katagiri and Oshitari, again?" Their English teacher was waving their small grammar handbook in the air,"I wonder why Ono-sensei hadn't moved the two of you yet. If you're going to keep talking all the time during class, the least you can do is speak in English."

" _Yes, Mister Iori_ _._ "

Noise erupted in the classroom. Out of disbelief that he was talking back or in awe that Yuushi was speaking English, Hiyori didn't know. The hand she was leaning on ran through her hair tiredly. Similar stares were directed towards them again and all Hiyori could do was close her eyes and hope that Yuushi would shut up. She was silently cursing him for being so chatty.

" _Not seriously, Oshitari_. _Just don't do it again and pay more attention._ " Iori-sensei was regretting what he had said entirely. Activating the smart mouth of one of the brighter students in class was not his intention. "Also, please pick up the scraps of wood underneath your table before the lunch period."

" _Akan_. I didn't think he was that sharp either." Yuushi narrowed his eyes to the front.

Hiyori just stared at the scraps of wood from his pencils on the floor. Somehow they managed to fall out of the insides of his desk and she knew without a doubt that they were a part of an even bigger pile.

"You just don't know when to stop at all, Yuushi."

At the end of the period, Yuushi went on ahead to the lunchroom again. Hiyori had immediately stopped and was in the middle of apologizing to a second year outside the hall of her classroom. He had been going on ahead of her a lot as of late. As for the reason, she was never told why. She didn't need to be. It was the girls of the tennis team. Many of them are fans of the boy's tennis regulars.

Yuushi was one of the few who made it in his first year as well. He stood out amongst them along with Shishido, Mukahi and that Keigo Atobe.

Especially Atobe. The girls and boys revered the brown haired boy and flocked around him every time of the day. Was he famous school wide because of his tennis? Hiyori didn't really know. He's never actually met the guy. If that was the case, Yuushi would have that much attention as well. If you asked her, she would say he had a special charm.

Respectful and mature.

She almost laughed. If Hiyori didn't know him for so long she would've kept such an impression. Unfortunately it wasn't like that.

Instead, Inoue had been accompanying her to and from lunch. Inoue, whom she got to know a little more after that match with Kanagawa-senpai. It turned out that brightly colored hair matched her personality quite well.

She wasn't very sociable, but the smaller girl dropped hints that showed she held herself back often. She was considered the "Sweet Inoue" amongst their classmates, but whenever she is thought to be bothered, a reassuring smile would spread across her lips. Almost always it seemed chilly.

"Oshitari-san seems to have gotten you in trouble again." The two were walking beside each other as they entered the dining hall. "You've known each other for awhile?"

"That idiot...?" Hiyori barely murmured above a whisper. "I've known him since primary school before he moved from Osaka. He's very much like a brother who knows which buttons to push."

The exhausted expression became pleasant again. Those were some good times they had.

"A brother? I thought you two were together all this time."

Inoue received her order of natto from the lady chef behind the counter. Hiyori made eye contact with her and gave her a very sympathetic look. It must've been a little strange to prepare it. Inoue had some very peculiar tastes.

"We are together now." She crossed her arms as she waited for her order at the counter. "It had been years since we've spent this much time together, but here we are now. "

"No, no." Inoue was waving her arms in front of her in response to her interpretation of what together meant. With several hand motions and hesitant explanations, Hiyori finally understood what she had meant.

* * *

"No, that's not it!"

Yuushi swore he could hear Hiyori from the other end of the dining hall yelping away. There she was waving her hand around in front of Inoue from their class.

"Oshitari? What's up?" Mukahi asked as he was taking apart his fried chicken with his fingers.

He watched her execute her signature slap on her forehead. It seems she made good friends with Inoue already from the look of things. Considering that Hiyori only really hung out with boys in primary school, it was a change of pace. He was glad she had someone else she got along with. She'll have to learn how to handle her new found attention though.

Mukahi dropped his chicken from his fingers and leaned over the table to study Yuushi. He slowly followed his line of sight.

"Katagiri, again?" He plopped back down into his seat and leaned his head against his hand. "Everyone is so taken in by her."

Shishido was also sitting next to Mukahi across from Yuushi. Shishido had his own steak meal sitting on a large white plate in front of him. It was still sizzling with heat from the grill.

"Katagiri? Who's that?"

"She was the Osaka girl that beat the regular on the girl's team."

"Uh...?"

"Ryou, you were the one who told me about the girl's match that happened nearly over a month ago weren't you?"

"Oh, yeah right. It was nothing too interesting. It's whatever."

"Just look at how much attention she draws in now." Mukahi digressed. "It's like Atobe two point o'!"

"Girls aren't the only people who populate this school, Mukahi." Yuushi took in a large scoop of broth from his udon. As he leaned in, the steam from his hot meal fogged up his glasses.

"I know, but there are plenty of guys who silently admire your girl for being pretty cute."

"She isn't _my_ girl."

He wasn't surprised by the male student body's reluctance to openly associate themselves with her. She was quite the serious one; often times looking unapproachable.

"You guys are talking too much. Another Atobe? I can't even stand one. I've never heard of this Katagiri until now."

"Really now? Do you live under a rock, Ryou?"

"Shut up, I just don't like rumors." Shishido shoved a piece of cut steak into his mouth and turned around to see anyway. Then he turned back to the table and almost choked.

"Shishido?" Yuushi raised a brow at his strange behavior.

"That's Katagiri? She's your girlfriend, Oshitari?"

There were some hostile signals coming his way from across the table.

"Why are you looking at me like you want to kill me?"

Shishido was looking up at him with what looked like half astonishment. The other half almost looked pissed. Although, the pissed half was how his face looked all the time.

"Besides, I don't think I can cross that bridge." Yuushi watched her hide her face away from the attention she attracted. "Almost like a sister, I suppose."

One he took great entertainment from when he teased her.

Shishido only shrugged and bit more into his steak as he watched another crowd swarm in Katagiri's direction.

"And you can never break that point past sister. That's taboo stuff right there." Mukahi continued to shovel the meat of his chicken into his mouth. "Jest dun goo mekkin moobs un ur 'sistar' den."

"Literally, yeah. That's taboo." Shishido rolled his eyes. "Gakuto, we shouldn't be telling you to chew and swallow your food before talking."

Making moves on her? Flirtation was his way of teasing her, although sometimes he had to wonder why his heart felt troubled afterwards.

Hiyori was looking around left and right. She finally spotted him and waved her hand around.

 _'Doesn't this seem awfully familiar...?'_

Silently, he got up from his seat to respond to her frantic beckoning.

* * *

Then it was the end of the school day. It was the day before the winter break so there were no clubs or committee meetings happening today. Hiyori would have liked to walk home with Inoue, but she had to do many kind of errands for her family. Inoue was the oldest child in the household as well. She had two other nieces living with her and her family.

That left her with Yuushi again.

They rode the train home together with Yuushi reading his novel behind the leather bag on his lap. The train was quite crowded with Hyotei students just getting off of school. Men and women, boys and girls were all crowded together.

"You have a book cover for a reason. I don't understand why you keep insisting on hiding it behind your bag."

He just smiled at her from behind his glasses as always. Like he were saying 'why are you fussing over it.'

She just started to sulk in her seat.

"You know what Inoue-san said to me during lunch?"

"I don't know, but I saw you screaming your head off in the dining hall."

"I wasn't screaming. I was only taken aback. It'd be troublesome if everyone thought that way."

"About what?"

"She thought we were together."

He scrunched his face together questioningly as if that were a problem.

"Together? Aren't we always nowadays?"

"I thought that way too but she meant together, _together_."

"Together..." Yuushi's book was in his lap now. Getting it, he sighed. "You mean like going out."

"Right."

"That Mukahi said the same too."

What was with people nowadays? They weren't even in high school yet. It's too early to think about things like relationships.

"It's dumb." She shrugged it off with some nervous laughter. "How silly is it to think about that at our age."

Yuushi was already back into his book and responded flatly, seemingly uninterested in the current subject.

"I think so too."

The train rocked from side to side as it slowed down to a stop. Someone was bumping into leaning back into Hiyori's face as the crowded compartment squirmed. She was leaning her head back into the side of the train; squishing her head there to prevent herself from getting bumped in the nose. An arm slowly snaked around her shoulder and a hand gently pushed the side of her head into Yuushi's shoulder.

"Careful now."

"Yuushi?"

His hand lingered there before it gently settled on the other side her shoulder.

"We'll let these people leave first and we'll follow after them."

There it was again; that troubled feeling. It only grew stronger when he noticed how flushed Hiyori's cheeks have gotten from the corner of his eye.

The people filtered out slowly before it left just a handful of people in the compartment. Yuushi stood up and motioned her to follow. The two walked out on the platform and walked home together. The two lived in the same residential area, but lived a good three streets away. Hiyori's home was closest to the station, so Yuushi would drop her off on his way back to his house.

"These streets..." Hiyori said as she walked with the long haired boy beside her. "Are definitely livlier than Naniwa."

The quiet road of their small town wasn't much compared to their current homes on the streets of Tokyo.

"Isn't it?" Yuushi had his hands in the pockets of his uniform pants. He was staring up into the cloudy sky as if he were thinking. "I guess it's one other thing I miss. Osaka is less hectic. Save for Doutonbori."

Doutonbori Daini, their elementary school (like the name insinuates) was considered a part of the bustling urban area of Doutonbori, but their old residential area was one that was overlooked.

"I miss it a lot." Hiyori told him.

She had grown up in Osaka all her life. Tokyo dialect was another thing she had to get accustomed too.

"I do too. Tokyo takoyaki is weird, it gets insanely crowded, and my personal space is pretty much non existent." Yuushi was counting with his fingers. "That being said, it's exhausting."

"Definitely exhausting."

The two nodded their head in unison.

"But I'm used to it. I don't really think about it anymore."

"You've moved a lot haven't you."

Since she had met Yuushi, he had moved over twice. All within Osaka and finally to Tokyo.

"Six times."

"No wonder."

It's no wonder he's capable of feeling immune to the exhaustion of constantly moving. Just meeting someone, getting to know them before leaving again to some place you don't know again. The cycle had repeated itself for years.

"You're strong, Yuushi."

 _'Strong?'_

He stared down at her with brief disbelief. For the first time, he felt misunderstood by her; one his closest friends. If not, his closest.

"Why?" Was all he could utter.

"Well." She stopped in her tracks and placed a hand under her chin to think. "Like you said, you don't really think about it anymore. But you used to. You've had to deal with leaving people behind. It's not easy."

One of her slender hands went up to touch her chest.

"It's not easy on you or the people you left behind."

There was emphasis on the words 'people you left behind'. The way her hand curled against the place above her heart made him feel troubled again. It was because Yuushi wasn't strong, he kept those emotions to himself. The feeling his own chest tightened. He wanted to hold her tightly.

Not for the sake of reenacting a romantic situation, but because his closed off heart sincerely wanted to.

* * *

"Thank you for taking me home again."

"It's my pleasure."

He placed his hand on his chest and bowed down politely like the gentleman he was.

Hiyori bent down to meet his eyes and pulled his chin up with her hand. "You're a silly one, you know?"

She released him as he slowly straightened himself back up. She pulled her arm away from him, but it was quickly taken ahold by his gentle yet firm grip.

He was staring at her intently now.

Deep blue into light hazel.

 _'Now was too soon, but maybe when they were older... could he walk across the other side of that bridge?_ '

"Yuushi?"

She blinked back at him. She didn't quite understand what was going on now. A staring contest? Well, Yuushi always won at those. Hiyori went with it anyway.

So she stopped blinking and just waited. It was a good few seconds before he let go and sighed as if he had given up.

"You're a tough one."

His attempt at intimacy was a failure. It made him feel even more like a child.

"So I win, right?"

"Uh...?"

"Weren't we having a stare down just now?"

It was a failure.

"Yes, but-"

"I won then."

' _Oh gods, she's so dense_.'

It was even worse than he thought.

"Yes... yes you did." He murmured as she stepped onto the stone pathway leading to her front door. "You win this time."

She swiveled on her heel and gave a small smile.

"You're going to Osaka again this coming holiday, right?"

"Always." He affirmed. And as always he'll be rooming in with that idiot cousin of his. Returning sane was always a miracle to Yuushi.

Then she watched as his gaze shifted from her face to something past her shoulder. Turning around, she noticed her father walking down the steps from their front door.

Yuushi gave a curt bow to the older man dressed in a loose yukata.

"It's good to see you again, Yuushi-kun."

"And you as well, Jun-san. I was just dropping off Hiyori on my way home."

"I appreciate it." He replied simply and rested a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "By the way, Yuushi-kun. What are your holiday plans?"

"He's going to Osaka."

Jun looked down at his daughter warily. The hand on her shoulder squeezed her lightly. "We might see you there then."

"We are?" Was all Hiyori could say. It took a few words to get a lot of excitement pumping through her veins.

"Really?" Yuushi was just as surprised.

"We will fly back this weekend and will be staying at our previous house."

"That's great! We'll be spending our holiday in Osaka." She had the biggest smile on her face. She would be returning to Naniwa sooner than she had anticipated. "But the house in Naniwa- I thought you sold it, 'tou-san."

"We will be going to and from Tokyo and Osaka for quite awhile. We need to pay respects to your mother after all."

Then the blood went cold. The smile was short lived. Her excitement was replaced with dread. She didn't need to have him say it in front of Yuushi of all people.

"Always saying unnecessary things..." Hiyori brushed off Jun's hand.

"Hiyori?" From the look of things, Jun was slightly taken aback by her daughter's behavior.

Yuushi watched her face scrunch up into discomfort before her lips shifting into a sheepish smile.

"I'll see you in Osaka, Yuushi."

Then she ran back inside the house. An awkward situation that was awfully familiar when she first met the boy. She had slammed the door shut behind her. Suddenly she became afraid of breaking the wood structure of the door frame. As she turned back to check any damage, the door opened.

"Otou-san."

Her father stood before her with his arms crossed against his chest as he stared down at her. Even as his daughter it was difficult to tell what he was thinking.

"Pack warm clothes for the next few weeks."

Without an answer, she started to walk down the hall to her room.

"And Hiyori."

Her bare feet halted.

"I'm sorry. I did not stop to think."

And as her father, it was just as difficult to understand his own daughter. It was saddening, but it was something Hiyori had already accepted when she was even younger. Throughout the years, her father didn't spend much time with her because of work. When he came back home, he didn't even fall asleep in his bedroom.

He would immediately sit down on the couch and watch the evening news. Hiyori would wake up to find him slumped back onto the couch fast asleep before he went back to work in the next few hours. By the time she was in mid primary school she understood how hard her father worked to support the two of them.

Without a single response, she went into her room and brought out her luggage from underneath her wood framed bed. She wasn't picky with her outfits and she immediately stuffed in whatever comfortable clothes she saw first in her closet.

' _We need to pay respects to your mother after all._ '

She zipped up the suitcase and shut her eyes.

Her cellphone chimed in her school bag. It was slightly nerve wracking. It was Yuushi. No doubt about it. She prayed he wouldn't ask about what had happened earlier. Reaching over on the floor, she pulled it from the leather bag.

 _'I just got home. Are you doing all right?'_

 _-Yuushi'_

She gave a sigh of relief.

 _'Just fine, packing for the upcoming trip. I'll see you in Osaka, okay? '_

 _-Hiyori_

Giving that one short reply, she closed her phone.

Thinking back on her family relations, perhaps her mother was one of the reasons why she felt Hiyori and her father had a detached relationship. She didn't know for sure, though. She never really met her, nor could she remember her face.

* * *

A/N: I spent so much time cooking this up. I'm pretty excited for what's to come as well. That being said, **my finals are next week so pray for me, okay?** SO I CAN COME BACK AND WRITE SOME MORE.

Ohoh 'kay, Yuushi. Hiyori is so dense, she thought it was staring contest LOL. (σ´∇`)σ  
I also can't get over Yuushi's strange pencil carving thing LOLOL.

Next time, it's surprises galore with the Oshitari family. Kenya centric next chapter.


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